2007 JAPANESE GP

FUJI FERRARI F2007 (3RD)

“Brilliant Lewis on brink of title,” shouted Autosport magazine’s cover after the 2007 Japanese GP, but Raikkonen’s drive to third would turn out to be very important to the outcome of the championship.

Raikkonen’s fine victory in the subsequent Chinese GP, taking advantage of a Mclaren strategy error and Lewis Hamilton’s mistake, is probably more famous. But the race at Fuji was just as important – and arguably more impressive.

Raikkonen qualified third, but he and team-mate Felipe Massa were immediately put on the back foot thanks to a miscommunication between race director Charlie Whiting and the team. With the race starting behind the safety car in appalling conditions, Ferrari put both its cars on intermediate tyres instead of extreme wets, a direct violation of Whiting’s email, which Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali somehow didn’t receive until after the race began.

Both Massa and Raikkonen were forced to come in to correct the situation, falling to the rear of the field. And both were brought in again, still behind the safety car, for fuel top-ups.

The field was finally released on lap 20 of 67, with Raikkonen 16th, and he soon started gaining places. While the championship-challenging Mclarens led and Massa began an afternoon packed full of incident – a drivethrough penalty for overtaking under safety car conditions and several off-track excursions – Raikkonen held his nerve.

“Raikkonen was scything through the midfield, a red flash that pounced from the gloom to snatch one place after another, sitting there blind at 190mph, listening for where the guy in front was braking, waiting, then launching down his inside,” reported Autosport’s Mark Hughes. “He knew he’d need to be stopping again, so he was taking no prisoners.”

Many others made mistakes

– even Hamilton and Robert Kubica clashed, while Fernando Alonso lost control of his Mclaren and crashed out – and Raikkonen just kept moving forward.

Alonso’s accident brought out the safety car and, while the debris was being cleared, Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso clattered into Mark Webber’s Red Bull. Raikkonen was therefore seventh at the restart, most cars having now made their final stops.

The Ferrari was soon engaged in a battle with David Coulthard’s

Red Bull. On lap 57 he swept around the outside of Turn 5 to grab the inside for the following hairpin.

He then closed on Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault and the duo put on a superb battle in the closing laps, Raikkonen eventually having to settle for third. That was enough to keep him in title contention on a day when Massa was knocked out of the championship fight, something that would prove vital against the Mclarens in China and the Brazilian GP finale.

“A largely unsung virtuoso performance that humbled his struggling team-mate,” reckoned Autosport’s Adam

Cooper at season’s end.