Formula 1 World: Kimi Räikkönen Pictures And Bio

Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (born 17 October 1979 in Espoo) is a Finnish racing driver. He drives in Formula One for Lotus in 2012. After nine seasons racing in Formula One, in which he took the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Championship, he competed in the World Rally Championship from 2010–2011.

Räikkönen entered Formula One as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in 2001. Having previously only raced in very junior open-wheel categories, he was given his Super Licence from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after a performance delivery promise by his team boss, Peter Sauber. He joined McLaren Mercedes in 2002, and became a title contender by finishing runner-up in the 2003 and 2005 championships to Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, respectively. Räikkönen's 2003 and 2005 seasons were plagued by severe unreliability from his McLaren cars.

Räikkönen has signed a 2 year deal with Lotus starting with the 2012 Formula One season.

2012 COMEBACK TO FORMULA 1:

Räikkönen began the season by qualifying 17th for the Australian Grand Prix after making a mistake on his last flying lap. However he recovered his weekend during the race the next day, as he made a good start to move up to twelfth, before making it into the top ten. He took three places on the last lap of the race, to finish in seventh place.At the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix he was 14th after running 2nd before being overtaken by 10 cars in the space of one lap, thanks to a mistake in tyre strategy expecting Pirelli tyres to last longer in the last stint. At the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix he finished second starting from 11th position on the grid. It was his first podium and his best finish of this comeback. Three weeks later, Räikkönen finished third at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, after having qualified in fifth place, which had been promoted to fourth as a result of a penalty given to Lewis Hamilton. In the 2012 European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit he finished second behind Fernando Alonso.