THE GREAT DIVIDE
K
imi Raikkonen’s grim face told a story of
its own on the podium after he finished
second to Sebastian Vettel in Ferrari’s
one-two triumph at the Monaco Grand Prix.
While the four-time champion German
joyously celebrated the 45th win of his career,
and Ferrari’s first in Monte Carlo for 16 years,
in a torrent of joyous words, the taciturn Finn
fended off questions about the use of team
orders.
Raikkonen, 37, the 2007 world champion,
resisted all invitations to condemn Ferrari, but
made clear he was unhappy to be deprived of a
possible victory.
As the 29-year-old Vettel beamed with
pleasure on the victor’s podium, his teammate
looked as if it was the last place he wanted to be
with a face of thunder.
After starting from pole position, Raikkonen
led comfortably until he was surprisingly called
in for an early pit-stop that handed the initiative
to Vettel who romped to the scarlet scuderia’s
first win since the halcyon days of seven-time
champion German Michael Schumacher in 2001.
The instruction to pit was from Ferrari in a
bid to ‘under-cut’ the chasing pack — a tactic not
usually used in Monaco, where the later ‘over-
cut’ tactic of waiting to match a rival is regarded
as more successful.
But he stopped short of saying his
disappointment was a result only of the team’s
overall pit-stop strategy, “I was called in… That’s
about it,” he said in his first terse response.”
Later, under pressure from a series of
questions by reporters at a post-race news
conference, he added: “Obviously, they had
reasons for it, but it is not up to me to answer.”