The first race of the 2012 Formula 1 season is done and dusted. My heart was beating so fast and hard during the opening seconds of the race, hoping and praying that Kimi would get off to a clean start, avoid any incidences and be able to gain some positions. That's exactly what he did and by the end of the first lap was running in 12th. And at one point, he was even up to second place in the race. All in all a great effort put in by Kimi to make up for the qualifying mishap yesterday.
Pity for Romain Grosjean being shunted out of the race by Pastor Maldonando. I pretty much suspected his inexperience in a racing situation would cause him to lose position at the start of the race and true enough he was boxed in and schooled by the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel as well as Michael Schumacher's Mercedes. I was hoping to see him back on track but once I caught sight of his broken suspension, I knew it was all over for Grosjean.
So all hope for a productive first outing for 2012 now rested on Kimi's shoulders and boy am I really happy he managed that 7th place. It felt somewhat like vindication when Kimi made a decisive overtaking maneuver on Felipe Massa at one point midway through the race. He even provided some comic relief when he came on the radio to his engineer and enquired about the blue flags he presumed were being waved at him :) Apparently, he was a Chatty Cathy during the race if Eric Boullier, the Lotus F1 team principal is to be believed. Anyways, on the last lap he looked good for a 1 point finish in 10th place but in the span of a couple of corners he gained 3 places. It was a rather confusing last lap after the big Maldonado crash as Kimi moved up from 10th to 7th but I am not complaining - anything that hauls him up further in the standings and the points, I'll take it :D
Looking forward to Malaysia next weekend. Hopefully no more qualy blunders and a greater racing comeback from my main man.
Great drive Kimster!
DISCLAIMER:
Image is not mine, borrowed from PlanetF1 who most likely got it from Getty Images or something to that effect.
