7. Raikkonen's 'Action of the Year' first lap in Portugal
As good as Lando Norris' late charge in Austria was, there was an even better performance to come from Kimi Raikkonen in the Portuguese Grand Prix. Not that it had started off looking particularly promising for the former world champion, who was having a disappointing season overall as a result of an underpowered Alfa Romeo making top ten finishes thin on the ground in 2020.
A surprise eighth place in opening practice at Portimão didn't translate into a successful qualifying where he missed out on progressing into Q2 due to a late effort from George Russell. It meant he started the race from sixteenth place on the grid, but what followed was pure old school Formula 1 magic. When the lights went out he shot off like a rocket, and on the first lap alone he managed to pass ten cars. If you saw it in a video game, you'd surely scoff and say how completely unrealistic and unbelievable it all was and that it could never happen in real life. But it had, and it showed what F1's most experienced driver can do given even the slightest sniff of an opportunity. Asked about it later, Kimi said he couldn't understand why everyone else had been so slow.
©AlfaRomeo
Unfortunately that brilliant start didn't have a fairy tale ending. After gaining another position to run in sixth place, the performance issues of the troublesome Ferrari power unit left him unable to hold on to all those positions once the race settled down. He was passed in quick succession by Charles Leclerc, Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly before being the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop which dropped him to the back. Midway through the race he had cycled back to tenth place and looked set to get at least a point for his dazzling efforts, only to lose it to his former Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel.
Not that it took anything away from the brilliance of that first lap, which was rightly selected as the recipient of the FIA Action of the Year award. Raikkonen might be the oldest driver on the grid and by far the most experienced with 329 Grand Prix starts under his belt, but he can still show the younger drivers how it's done. And better still, he'll be back in 2021 to do it all over again.
