End of season: quotes on Kimi, Part 2

Source: ts.fi | Translation courtesy of Nicole

Heikki Kulta spoke to a few people about their highlights of the 2012 F1 season. Beginning with one of the closest workers and friends of Kimi, his physio trainer Mark Arnall:

Mark Arnall: “Highlight? Well, coming back to F1. Of course Abu Dhabi is above all the other races. It was a completely special case, because Kimi won a GP after being away for two years. The whole season has been good, one big highlight in itself, but Abu Dhabi was a fantastic thing for the team, it was important that they got a victory with Kimi during this season.”

“I myself am not surprised at all over Kimi’s performances. I thought all the time that he is competitive if he comes back. Kimi is probably the most committed driver the team can get. He owns the car so quickly. The first test in Valencia in January proved that to everybody. Three laps and Kimi was as if he would had never been away. The season has been totally unique. Kimi is confidence itself with his consistency and the car has been fantastically reliable.”

Oskari Saari, MTV3: “I guess the Finnish highlight is quite easy to put in October-November. First there was the news about Kimi Räikkönen making a continuance contract and right after that the victory in Abu Dhabi. That’s highlight enough for me at least.”

David Coulthard: “There are so many highlights that it’s difficult to say which one of them startled me the most: Ferrari’s comeback, Alonso’s driving performances, a few of Lewis Hamilton’s stunning race performances, Kimi’s “Yes, yes, yes, I know what I’m doing”. Kimi is still completely his own self, the same one he was when we drove at McLaren. His comeback was a huge favor to F1.”

Will Buxton, SpeedTV: “When it comes to driving the highlights are probably Vettel’s spectacular rises in both Abu Dhabi as well as here in Brazil. Very masterful performances, both of them, when taking into consideration under which pressure they were performed. Many got their fingers whipped after claiming that Sebastian can’t overtake and that he got his success too easily. Also one can’t but highlight the value of Kimi’s victory in Abu Dhabi. It was a reward to Lotus-team for their hard work and following Kimi has given a lot to everybody.”

Alan Jones, former world champion: “I think he surprised a lot of people, me included. He’s come back to Formula 1 and he’s done extremely well. It’s probably one of the most successful comebacks, next to Lauda and so forth, so good on him.”