Top 10: Kimi Raikkonen's Best Moments in F1 as the Iceman enters his 300th Grand Prix

#8 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix

Kimi marked his return to F1 with an impressive drive in Bahrain

The race marked the return of Kimi into the big league. Kimi had taken a hiatus from Formula One and went for Rallying after the 2009 season. After a couple of seasons doing that, he was lured back to the grid by the Lotus team.

Not many knew how good he was going to be and there were certainly doubts around him and his commitment. In the first few races, he showed that he hadn't lost his speed or his racecraft and was impressing everyone with his driving.

Come to Bahrain, and Kimi qualified outside the top 10 and in an era where tire management was the king he slowly and steadily started scything his way through the field and by mid-race he was right on the back of Sebastian Vettel and fighting for the lead. Although that didn't materialize and Kimi had to settle for the second, he was able to show that he had lost none of his speed and he was still quite handy in a Formula One car.

About the author

Charanjot is an F1 writer and Content Specialist at Sportskeeda with over 5 years of experience covering news, trends, and analyses related to the sport.

He started watching F1 when Narain Karthikeyan made his F1 debut in 2005 and was hooked when Kimi Raikkonen delivered a stunning lap in Monaco in the same season. He has been with the firm for almost 4 years and tries his best to put his links in the F1 paddock to the best use so as to report relevant and accurate information.

Charanjot has interviewed Indian motorsports driver Kush Maini during his time with Sportskeeda. He has also written 4K+ articles on the sport and is the key factor behind all the F1-related content that goes out in the domain.

If given a chance, he would like for India’s Buddh International Circuit to be added back to the calendar. A Mechanical engineer and an MBA, Charanjot aims to spearhead the cause of making F1 a mainstream sport in India. Apart from F1, he also follows MotoGP, cricket and MMA.

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Edited by Debjyoti Samanta