Kimi Raikkonen rarely gives up without a fight and with three races remaining in Formula One season, the Finnish driver is set to take the championship challenge to the wire. The Ferrari driver lead from start to finish during Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix and has now trimmed championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s lead to 13 points. Hamilton finished in a disappointing fourth spot with his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso finishing just ahead of him in third.
The Finn stated from pole position and easily transformed that into a lead at the first corner at the highly demanding Spa-Francorchamps track which is also considered as the best racing circuit in the world. That provided Raikkonen with the impetus to march onto his third straight Belgian Grand Prix victory ahead of his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa who finished second in the race.
Raikkonen was visibly delighted and is confident that he can still wrestle the Drivers’ Championship from the McClaren duo of Hamilton and Alonso. Raikkonen says:
We knew we would be stronger here than in Monza. It was the perfect race for the team. We’re still in the championship and we’ll keep pushing and see what we can do.
The race track at Spa has been traditionally found to favour the Ferrari team and that fact was consolidated once more on Sunday. Raikkonen never looked like conceding his lead and Massa was appearing full of confidence of remaining second throughout the race. All Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso could do was fight for the third spot which after a lengthy tussle was finally clinched by Alonso who is now just 2 points off the pace.
But Hamilton says that he won’t buckle down easily now that Alonso is breathing heavily on his neck and adds that he doesn’t count Raikkonen as his rival to the drivers’ title. Hamilton says:
It’s not over but it’s getting close. I’m going to be aggressive in the next few races. I’m not too bothered about Ferrari, I think they’re out of the picture. For me it’s about beating Fernando.
Only three more races remain this season and considering that Hamilton hasn’t featured in the Chinese, Japanese or Brazilian Grand Prix, the championship could just tilt towards his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso who already has experience of racing at these tracks. Whatever happens in the final three races, once can rest assured that it’s going to be a hugely entertaining finish to the F1 season.
Image Source: Pitpass
Source: BBC
