Kimi Raikkonen had not scored a point since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix but amid a chaotic visit to Mugello the Alfa Romeo driver ended his personal longest points drought by picking up ninth place.
Although he was the eighth driver to take the chequered flag at last Sunday’s Tuscan Grand Prix, the Finn was handed a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry.
With a late standing restart threatening to send Raikkonen out of the top 10, he built a gap and lost just a single position to Charles Leclerc at the end of the race.
The C39, which so far has been devoid of speed to consistently challenge within the midfield, has kept Raikkonen towards the bottom of the drivers’ standings throughout the 2020 season.
At Mugello, Raikkonen secured his first Championship points of the current campaign, with his previous top 10 position coming at another frantic encounter, at Interlagos last November.
While it was fourth place on that occasion, Raikkonen has not had the car to achieve a similar score since, and has had to wait almost 10 months to get himself on the scoresheet once more.
Having driven for teams in the past such as McLaren and Ferrari, Raikkonen has mostly been a frequent point-scorer throughout his career.
In 2002, during his first year with McLaren, for six consecutive races Raikkonen failed to see the finish, which stood as his longest points drought until 2019 when he went seven races without a top 10 finish.
That streak was broken in Brazil, before he went on to break his own personal record by going nine races without a points finish, which he manged to bring to an end last Sunday at Mugello.
It makes for just two top-ten finishes in the last 18 races, with questions now ramping up over his future in the sport due to his contract expiring this year.
Next month at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Raikkonen will further embed himself into F1’s history books when he surpasses Rubens Barrichello’s record to become the most experienced F1 driver of all time with 327 grand prix entries.
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