Alright, Kimi. It’s less than a 100 clicks to the finish line, you got a third tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes hidden away from Minttu, it’s dark… and you are not wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

Finally. Finally we got to see what a beast Kimi is on race day when he has a reasonable qualifying and no midfield fucks to ruin his day. Let me modify the previous statement. We got to see what kind of result he can bring the Ferrari to, when all goes well. Because he sure was a monster in Malaysia with that fightback. He had some serious speed in Australia before the wheel issue. And so on. Just that his speed and pace have been a bit camouflaged by the end result.

QUALIFYING

Kimi have shown better pace than Vettel in pretty much every weekend. Now, I am not going to turn this into some kind of teammate battle. The truth is that both Ferrari drivers are insanely quick. But looking at the races and practice sessions, it emerges that Mr. Raikkonen has had the edge when it comes to speed on race day. Just like Sebastian has the edge on Saturday. Looking at the end result, we see how important Saturday is. And that is a bit of a worry. Because that means that Kimi has to either fight his way past Sebastian at the start or rely on an alternative strategy to get the maximum out of his race pace.

That being said, Saturday in Bahrain was Kimis best so far in 2015. A couple of tenths behind Vettel who did an amazing lap to get in between the Mercs. The Finn said that he could have pushed more as he found there was more grip available than expected. Pretty understandable, since he had previously said that he had pushed too much and lost time due to that. Not wanting a repeat, he went a tad to the cautious side.

I am expecting Vettel to get the better time on nearly all Saturdays to be honest. But the Finn has said he is working on his one-lap performance. So who knows. The scales might even out a little. Anyway, P4 is pretty good when his main rivals are two monster Mercedes cars and his teammate might be the best qualifier on the grid. Oh, and the other star qualifier is in one of the Mercs. Could be worse.

THE RACE

Boom – out go the lights!
Rosberg is so caught up in getting past Vettel that he forgets all about The Iceman who has the entire outside of the track to himself and nudges himself past the German/Finn/ Monaco resident or whatever he is. Nicely done! But the silver car is the class of the field and just 4 laps later Rosberg wrestles past Kimi in the same place he was overtaken. Nico is desperate to not let Hamilton get away for yet another race and just 5 laps later he passes Vettel in turn 1. A lap earlier, Vettel had made his first mistake of the day that allowed Nico to close right up.

This commotion allows Hamilton to scamper away at the front, building a nice buffer to his competitors. Raikkonen is getting right up to Vettels exhaust. Clearly faster. He hints on the radio that he can go faster but no response was heard and no change of positions. A shame because that would most likely have given Ferrari the victory the way things played out. But Vettel had track position, so fair enough. Once the pitstops begin, we see a repeat of China where Kimi is left out two laps longer – but this time puts on the mediums where the other front runners took on softs.

Raikkonen emerges from the pits and lights up his tires as he tries to stay ahead of his Finnish compatriot in the Williams. He is 14 seconds away from the other Ferrari and 18 seconds adrift from the lead car. The pace Kimi sports on the mediums blows my mind. He is not only quicker than his teammate but is gaining heavily on Rosberg as well. Even Hamilton here and there. I immediately drop my usual activity on social media because I know I am witnessing “The Raikkonen hustle” as dubbed by Martin Brundle in Hungary 2009. And like Steven Tyler, I don’t wanna miss a thing.

12 laps later and the gap to Vettel has shrunk to 5 seconds and 13 seconds to Hamilton. A couple of laps on the gap to Vettel is 4 seconds when the German dives into the pits for his final stint on mediums. What follows is another blown chance at the victory from the Ferrari strategists. I know hindsight is 20/20, but when the Finnish lad is losing 3 seconds a lap, pitting him one or 2 laps earlier will not be a stupid decision. In fact had they pitted Kimi just two laps before, his softs would still had been fairly fresh at the end and he would in theory have been 6 seconds closer to Hamilton. Taking Hamiltons braking problem into account and softs that were 2 laps older on Kimis car, he should be ahead of Hamilton. And passing a Merc with brake problems is do-able.

Anyways, I am getting ahead of myself. At the end of the day, these are still just speculations. I will say this though. When they saw Alonso wanting to get past Kimi to unlap himself, it should have been enough of a hint to bring him in on lap 39 instead of 41. Or at least lap 40! Alright. Letting it go..

Vettel did his biggest cockup on lap 35 when he completely misjudged and went wide in the final turn. Not only did it make things easy for Rosberg behind but he paid a steep price as his front wing somehow got badly enough damaged to need a replacement. In he went again and dropped to 5th behind Bottas. Those two would battle it out to the very end. A great dice where Vettel could find no way past the Williams.

CLOSING IN

Alright, Kimi. It’s less than a 100 clicks to the finish line, you got a third tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes hidden away from Minttu, it’s dark… and you are not wearing sunglasses. Hit it!
The gap to Rosberg is 20 seconds and 25 seconds to Hamilton. It’s a tall order. But Kimi has initiated Operation Scorched Earth and sets the fastest lap of the race to prove it. Which puts him 2nd and tied with Prost on the all-time high with 41 fastest laps to his name.

He is taking 2 seconds from the leaders per lap right off the bat. We hear on the radio that Rosberg is being told what the gap is to the chasing Iceman. Nico screams in reply: “Don’t tell me the gap anymore!” 13 laps later on lap 54, the gaps have been reduced to 2 seconds and 7 seconds. The boy likes to chase. Lap 56, Kimi gets the job done. It’s payback time as Kimi passes Rosberg after he runs wide in turn 1. The Mercs have been pushing their brakes too hard in a desperate attempt to keep the charging Finn at bay. And Hamiltons brake-by-wire system is not at its best anymore. But he crosses the line with a few seconds to spare. Just one more lap, or an earlier stop for Kimis final stint…

Oh well, it is what it is. And it’s something to celebrate. I did NOT expect Ferrari or Kimi for that matter to be so competitive in the cool evening desert air. But he was, and it bodes well. The only thing we have to fear now is fear itself. Or.. no. It’s still qualifying. I am not even enjoying Saturdays anymore. It all revolves around that final lap in Q3. Or the worry that something happens before that. Sometimes I miss 2010 and 2011… Oh, be quiet you spoilt child. We have this year and maybe only 2016 left before Kimi moves on to other things. So be grateful! Alright, alright. I will. Jeez..

Until Barcelona, take care.

Love,
Soren

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