The Iceman - Kimi Raikkonen in brief

He made his f1 debut in the 2001 formula one season for Peter Sauber's then Sauber Petronas racing team. He was given a provisional super license for, I think a period of three races. @ Albert Park in Melbourne, with a few hours to the start of the race, he fell asleep in his motorhome and was woken up minutes before the start. He also scored his first F1 point on debut, finishing 6th while battling greats like Schumacher and Hakkinen. Ferrari also claimed that they had discovered Schumacher's eventual successor and he would be Kimi Raikkonen, when the time comes. However Raikkonen had to wait till his 3rd F1 season and second with Mclaren to get his first win. He did it in Malaysia in 2003 after starting from 7th on the grid. he led home Barrichello and Alonso. In that season he lost the title by 2 points to Micheal Schumacher, who had an emotionally turbulent season himself, recovering from the shock of his mother's death to clinch his first win of the season at Imola.

2004 season and 2002 season were steam-rollered by the Ferraris and Micheal Schumacher, which prompted rule changes. Thus for the first time, F1 would have no tyre changes during the 2005 season. Raikkonen again lost the title fight to Alonso by 21 points. 2006 was to be Schumacher's swansong and he converteded a mid-season defecit of 25 points into a lead, by virtue of more wins going towards the last 2 races of the season. what happened at Japan and Brazil is history and Alonso romped home for his second consecutive title. Also 2006, Monza saw Ferrari announce Raikkonen as their driver for 2007 and Schumacher announce his retirement at the end of the season.

2007 started spectacularly for Raikkonen with a win at Melbourne. But for the rest of the season the spotlight was on Mclaren's young gun Lewis Hamilton. It was Hamilton all the way till the bandwagon reached Interlagos. Starting from 4th, Raikkonen spoilt Mclaren and Hamilton's party by leading home teammate Massa and Alonso to take the championship by a solitary point. Ferrari had won the constructors' title when Mclaren were stripped off all their points due to the spying scandal that erupted after Monaco.

Thats Raikkonen's 7 year career in brief. What you read here is partly from memory and partly from my Autocar archives.

a weekend of history lessons

First up, Formula One.

Massa takes pole from Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alsonso in what could be Hamilton's first title and on his debut. the last time someone did this was Giuseppe (Nino) Farina back in 1950...but well that was the first ever F1 season. So if all goes his way, Hamilton could make history.

Rugby's biggest international event ends in Saint Denis, a little while from now. South Africa meet unexpected finalists, defending champions England. The winner will take home their second title, South Africa won it in 1995. If England win it, they will also be the first team to win it back-to-back. So go on England.

Indian Football...57 years...and a nation refuses to rise

They need motivation...where does it come from? It comes if we, loyally follow our national team's progress thru wins and losses, thru ups and downs...just the way we follow cricket. Imagine we have the third oldest football tournament in the world, The Durand Cup. The oldest is the FA Cup and the second oldest is the Scottish FA Cup...

I used to live in Sheffield till the end of June, this year, around the corner from Bramall Lane. I still remember when Sheffield United were relegated, I was sittin in a pub across the stadium, with my friends. The final whistle blew and when the people were comin out, I could see 6 yr olds, 7 yr olds cryin coz the Blades were relegated and their fathers convincing them that another day will come when they will be back in the premiership. Though I was not a Blades follower, those scenes moved my heart...trust me...thats passion...thats following...thats loyalty...thats what we need to develop in ourselves...

I mean for people here football is not about a world cup or a once-in-four-years feast, its week in week out passion....thats what we need, thats how we need to start...we have to start somewhere...in India football needs to be given its due status.

cheers

Raam

my kind of weekend

Lets start with the IRB Rugby World Cup. England, the current world champions entered the event with as little confidence as anyone could have. They were plagued by injuries to key men in the squad. Then they also lost 36-0 to tournament co-favourites South Africa in the group stages. Their ascendance through the group stages was not very impressive.However they made it to the quarter-finals to set up a repeat of 2003 finals, with Australia, who were thirsty for revenge. In the game England even conceded an early 3 point lead. As one may have thought the end was near, came their hero Johnny Wilkinson, who scored 12 points to give England a 12-10 victory to go into the semi-finals, where another nightmare awaited them in the form of New Zealand as one would have thought so, but not, coz elsewhere in Cardiff, hosts France sent hot favourites New Zealand crashing out to face England in the semis... boy am I happy! Not only did England reach the semis, they also face France, who is much less of a nightmare than New Zealand.

Now football and the Premiership. Who else will I talk about other than my favourite red devils. After a goalless first half at home, we came back strongly with an opener from Carlos Tevez, followed by 2 from Cristiano Ronaldo and 1 from Wayne Rooney, to send Wigan back home in traditional Man United way. This puts us on top temporarily as Arsenal have played 2 games lesser than us.

Finally and most importantly formula one. Yes, my reds again. Hamilton went into Shanghai with the certainty of becoming the first rookie to win the title, but on a rain drenched noon, he got into the gravel and out of contention, a situation well-capitalised by Kimi, who led Alonso and Massa to the podium. Now what it means in terms of title challenge; There is one race left in the season with three drivers having an equal chance of winning the title.

Lewis Hamilton (Mclaren Mercedes) 107 points
Fernando Alonso (Mclaren Mercedes) 105 points
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 100 points

Do the permutation yourselves and see how the title that has gone down to the wire, may end. I sincerely hope that it is Kimi, simply coz hez been here long enough and more importantly he drives for Ferrari !!!!