The world champion’s performance at Turkey may have been lacklustre not only to most fans but in general. In hindsight, that’s easy to say. But the hidden truths were not as easy to notice. Let’stake a look at some interesting statistics on Kimi from the Turkish
Grand Prix, some information courtesy of Autosport.com and Michele
Merlino.
Kimi in particular is still having a tough time in qualifying this year – being
beaten four times out of five by Felipe Massa this year. In Turkey, Kimi was fuelled two laps heavier than Felipe and despite admitting a messy final sector and it indeed was, he was just 3 tenths away from pole position.
If we look at qualifying throughout his career, he ended only two seasons behind
his teammates in head-to-head comparisons: his debut
year in 2001, when he was beaten 10 times out of 17 by Nick Heidfeld; and
last year, when he ended the year just losing 8-9 to Massa. The
consolation for Kimi is that last year after five races he had the same
score he has now: one to four.
The best year for Kimi in qualifying was 2006, when he beat then-McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and the
Colombian’s substitute Pedro de la Rosa 15 times out of 18.
Kimi knows that qualifying has been his weakest point and will be
determined to come back stronger in Monaco in 13 days time. After
ending up on the grid 16th due to his unusual barrier contact last
year, Kimi still showed overtaking was more than possible in the narrow
and twisty circuit.
The
number of fastest laps for Kimi rose up to 27 at Turkey, his second of
this year. He also took the fastest lap during last year’s race in
Istanbul.
After
the last race in Spain, Kimi took his 51st podium, passing the original
‘Flying Finn’ Mika Hakkinen in the most number of podiums. He now
successfully passes that mark, taking his 52nd podium at Turkey.
In
points scoring, Kimi ended his 12th straight race in the points and
thus entered the top-10 sequences of all-times. Here is the chart:
| Rank | Driver | String of races in points | From race | To race |
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | 24 | Hungary 2001 | Malaysia 2003 |
| 2 | Michael Schumacher | 18 | San Marino 2003 | Spain 2004 |
| Fernando Alonso | 18 | Turkey 2005 | Germany 2006 | |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | 17 | China 2006 | Belgium 2007 |
| 5 | Carlos Reutemann | 15 | Belgium 1980 | Belgium 1981 |
| 6 | Michael Schumacher | 13 | San Marino 2006 | China 2006 |
| 7 | Jim Clark | 12 | Belgium 1963 | Belgium 1964 |
| Mika Hakkinen | 12 | San Marino 2000 | Italy 2000 | |
| Rubens Barrichello | 12 | Japan 2003 | Great Britain 2004 | |
| Jenson Button | 12 | France 2005 | Malaysia 2006 | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 12 | Hungary 2007 | RUNNING |
The Turkish GP weekend wasn’t a good one by Kimi’s standards, but if bad weekend results only for 3rd place then it’s not a lot to worry about! If you’re interested in reading the full statistics of Kimi’s career, you can read them all in the KRS Archive here.
FUCK ISRAEL 