Räikkönen in Japan: Almost all's well that ends well

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Kimi Räikkönen won the Japan Grand Prix at Suzuka on Sunday in dramatic style, flashing past Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault on the final lap to complete an unlikely and well-deserved victory.
      By no stretch of the imagination was this a totally successful weekend for McLaren-Mercedes, however, even if their Finnish driver could look back on perhaps the finest drive of his career so far.
     
The Japan GP was a chapter of accidents and misfortunes for McLaren. On Friday, Räikkönen blew his engine and had to get it replaced.
      Under current F1 rules this meant that he would be automatically penalised ten places on the starting grid, regardless of how well he drove in Saturday's qualifying. It was not the first time this season that Räikkönen has faced an artificially bad start to the race.
      Things were to go from bad to worse on Saturday, however, as rain destroyed any chance of securing a fast qualifying time.
      The rain got harder as the qualifying session went on, and since Räikkönen was among the last ones out, he suffered more than most. He started from 17th position on the grid, surrounded by some unlikely other "failures", like World Champion Fernando Alonso of Spain (16th in the other Renault) and multiple former World Champion Michael Schumacher of Ferrari (14th).
      The only bright spot was that the enginge-change allowed the McLaren-Mercedies team to plan a race strategy that would get as much as possible out of the new motor and minimise the poor grid position.
     
Taking on a heavy fuel load , Räikkönen still managed to find a good enough turn of speed in what is generally accepted as "the fastest car in F1" to be able to rip through the field and take the lead briefly just before his second pit stop.
      He returned to the track in 2nd spot behind Fisichella, and then set about tracking the Italian down, before executing a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre on the final lap. It was his seventh GP win of the season.
     
It was just as well for the team that Räikkönen had a good day at the office, since the other McLaren went out on Lap 1, as Juan Pablo Montoya was shunted onto the grass by Jacques Villeneuve.
      Since Alonso eventually finished in 3rd behind Fisichella, the Renaults scored 14 points to the ten of McLaren-Mercedes, and Renault leap-frogged ahead in the manufacturers' championship race. They now lead 176-174, with one race left, next weekend in China.
      The drivers' title was already settled in Brazil, with Fernando Alonso becoming the youngest man ever to win the coveted trophy, and Räikkönen, whose chances of the title were blighted by early-season reliability problems with the McLaren-Mercedes, is equally firmly fixed in the runner-up spot.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Räikkönen second in Brazil and Drivers' Championship as Alonso secures title (26.9.2005)

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