2004 BELGIAN GP
SPA MCLAREN MP4-19B (1ST)
Typical Spa weather provided a topsyturvy grid, and Raikkonen had to start from row five. There was also predictable chaos at La Source on the first lap, during which his Mclaren was hit, but he dodged the worst of it and emerged fifth.
That meant he ran behind the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso, team-mate David Coulthard, and Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari during the safety car period called to clear up the mess. Raikkonen’s Mclaren had picked up some diffuser damage, but some changes to the electronic differential settings helped compensate.
Schumacher’s Bridgestones took longer to get into their working temperature than Raikkonen’s Michelins and the Finn attacked.
He got better traction out of La Source at the restart, went to the inside for the daunting Eau Rouge, and made Schumacher back off.
Fourth place was now his. A brief downshift problem intermittently worried him, but he pressed on. On lap six of 44 he slipstreamed Coulthard on the run to Les Combes and took third, despite some resistance from the other Mclaren.
Still he was fighting the gearbox problem. “I was changing the switches on the steering wheel, trying to get some sort of idea of how I could push again,” explained Raikkonen. “We have different positions on engine braking, and one of them was working but it was an extreme one, almost locking the rear wheels. I was using it at the hairpin and the chicane, because otherwise I couldn’t stop the car. Then I would change the position for the other corners.”
Trulli stopped at the end of lap nine, after which he struggled on his second set of tyres, while Alonso spun twice thanks to oil spraying onto his rear tyres. After just 12 laps, Raikkonen was in the lead.
Coulthard suffered a tyre failure, leaving Schumacher as Raikkonen’s main threat. Raikkonen looked in control until Jenson Button crashed after a tyre blew and the safety car was called for a second time.
With their final stops completed, Raikkonen and Schumacher were together when the race resumed for the final 10 laps. But the Ferrari couldn’t break down the Mclaren’s defences, not even after a final safety car period. Indeed, at the restart Raikkonen unleashed the fastest lap of the race, nearly 0.4s quicker than anyone else managed. His second F1 win was secured by 3.1s. It was one of only three occasions that Ferrari’s remarkable F2004 was beaten all season.
“Raikkonen stamped his authority on the race with a perfect blend of aggression and cool, passing the world champion’s Ferrari, then repeatedly seeing it off despite several significant issues inside the Mclaren’s cockpit,” reckoned Autosport.