Flashback: Kimi Raikkonen’s Monaco Major

Some may say that Kimi Räikkönn is the most popular driver in modern Formula 1. Others reckon he’s the most entertaining. But we all know that the Iceman is among the sport’s greatest drivers and to define him in just one race would perhaps be impossible.

But were one to single out just one significant Kimi Räikkönen win, then it would have to be the 63rd Monaco Grand Prix on 22 May 2005.

Kimi of course sprang to prominence through his incredible Formula Renault UK season five years prior, which performance earned him an unlikely secret Sauber test, which in turn led to his F1 debut for the Swiss team when he scored a point with sixth in his first grand prix in Australia 2001.

He moved to McLaren Mercedes for 2002, where he promptly delivered his first podium in his first race for the team, once again in Australia, before he took his first win a year later at Malaysia. Kimi was on the podium ten times out of sixteen races in 2003, but 2004 would prove far more problematic with his second win in Belgium accompanied by three more podiums through the year.

2005 started better as Kimi arrived at Monaco with a spring in his step following a podium in Bahrain and his third win the previous race in Spain. Räikkönen starred in practice and went on to claim pole by a decisive half a second from Fernando Alonso’s Renault.

They say that a Monaco win is perhaps the single most important entry to a Formula 1 driver’s CV, but to have won the most illustrious grand prix on the calendar in the manner that Kimi did, stands him apart among the very finest. After getting the jump at the start and holding Alonso’s initial attentions off, Räikkönen soon drove away and was five seconds clear of Alonso, his Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli’s Toyota and Mark Webber’s BMW Williams by the twentieth lap.

Monaco being Monaco, there was drama when Christian Albers put it in the wall and Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari clouted David Coulthard’s Red Bull Renault as the two tried to avoid the stricken Minardi, with the safety car quickly deployed to curb any further drama and allow the Monaco crew to clear the track. Renault was quick to respond and pitted both its cars as most of the leaders followed Alonso and Fisichella into the pits for service, but Räikkönen surprisingly stayed out.

Remembering those were the days of refuelling, Räikkönen and McLaren strategist Neil Martin went the other way. Kimi then turned a brilliant series of laps once the track was cleared, while Alonso, hobbled by the weight of his Renault’s extra fuel and rapidly wearing rear tyres, was unable to respond, leaving Räikkönen to lead by 35 seconds by the time he pitted on lap 42 and able, and to resume 13 seconds clear of the Spaniard and cruise home to win the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix after having led having led every lap of the race.

Kimi went on to win in Canada, Hungary, Turkey, Belgium and Japan to make it seven wins among 12 podiums in 18 grands prix that year as he ended second behind Alonso in the championship. Considering he had also retired from the lead of three races and a series of reliability issues including qualifying engine change penalties, that season may well have delivered a rather different outcome.

It went even worse for Räikkönen in a barren 2006, as the trouble just got worse at McLaren Mercedes and Kimi jumped ship to Ferrari, where he promptly delivered Maranello’s last F1 World Drivers Championship in 2007.

But he was growing weary of F1 in 2009 and Kimi went walkabout, toying with everything from the World Rally Championship to NASCAR Trucks, before returning to F1 with Renault’s Lotus team in 2012. There he won two more races, before returning to Ferrari.

Kimi’s most recent of his 21 Grands Prix wins was for Ferrari in the US en route to third in the driver’s championship in 2018, before he moved to Alfa Romeo, where he continues to thoroughly enjoy racing F1, nineteen years after his debut.

His dry sense of humour and a tendency to more than just speak his mind when he talks, has made the Iceman a huge F1 favourite among a grid of preppy-boy rivals. But Kimi Räikkönen is first and foremost a mesmerising race driver whose 2005 Monaco Grand Prix win had to be a defining moment… (Photo: McLaren: