Kimi Raikkonen: O verdadeiro rebelde

Kimi Raikkonen: A True Maverick by David Edbrooke

Jenson Button may have secured the McLaren hotseat to race alongside Lewis Hamilton, but outgoing F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen leaves both men trailing in the category marked 'superhuman'.

Well OK, superhuman may be over-doing it, but he does have a nickname that deserves comic book status: the Iceman.

The Iceman (a woefully underused way of describing sporty Scandinavians, we're sure you'd agree) was frozen out at Ferrari earlier this autumn and now seems set for four-wheeled frolics on ice as a rally driver.

In common with many comic book creations, the Iceman doesn't say a lot and his words aren't weighed down with deep meaning, but his animated F1 driving has been the stuff of dreams... or nightmares, depending on which side of the 'no pain no gain' credo you fall.

When Raikkonen's car burst into flames in the pit lane on the first lap of this year's Brazilian GP and drops of petrol trickled into his eyes, rather than leap out of the car, douse his eyes in Optrex and run to an optician, he put his foot to the floor and rejoined the race.

The fire went out, but the flammable fluid in his eyes remained. Despite the risk of an incendiary outcome just around the cornea (apologies), he continued for the duration of the race - 70 laps - and finished sixth.

Afterwards the flaming Finn monotoned: "I ended up with some drops of petrol in my eye from the fuel line stuck on Heikki Kovalainen's car and then I was engulfed in flames and blinded. I was going to stop, but luckily the flames soon went out."

He added, with all the emotion of Schwarzenegger delivering a Hollywood line: "My eyes are still burning, but I'm all right."

Driving at speeds of up to 200mph for 70 laps while virtually blinded with your eyes about to combust may seem superhuman or stupid, but this is mere child's play for a man who has been described, often and unimaginatively, as born to drive... brings to mind an image of a baby Raikkonen driving his mother back from the maternity ward with the umbilical cord still attached like a fuel hose feeding a Ferrari. Born to drive indeed.

In 2002, while racing for McLaren, Belgium GP fans looked on incredulously as he powered his car into a sea of smoke caused by the blow-up of a BAR Honda.

Most drivers would have slammed on the brakes knowing that, somewhere in the dense black cloud, the obstacle of a slain F1 car was lying, but the Finn accelerated into the blackness and emerged from the smouldering plume like the T1000 in Terminator 2. A best qualifying lap was in the bag.

And at Suzuka in 2005 he put in a Herculean effort to rise from the back of the grid and torpedo past Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault on the final lap to take the chequered flag. Oh and he won the world championship in his first season at Ferrari.

While Raikkonen's F1 driving was dramatic, his interviews were devoid of drama. When he spoke to the media - he preferred not to - he did so in a Dalek-like drawl.

He sometimes needed waking up shortly before the start of a race after a power nap - or just a nap - and he could be ruder than Amy Winehouse. His response to being asked if he would get over the disappointment of missing a special presentation involving football great Pele and Michael Schumacher at the 2006 Brazilian GP: "Yeah. I was having a ----."

Now the flying Finn is heading for a Formula One sabbatical. He leaves F1 unchallenged as the paddock's monosyllabic maverick.

Interviewer: Kimi, have you ever got angry about anything?

Raikkonen: Yeah, many times but more in normal life than racing.

Interviewer: Can you give us examples?

Raikkonen: No, not really.

Interviewer: What are the kind of things that make you angry in normal life, as you say?

Raikkonen: If you keep asking questions like those.

Fonte: Telegraph.co.uk

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Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy