Kimi Raikkonen stood on the podium for the fourth time in five races in Spain.
The former 2007 Formula One World Champion has proven himself to be Mr. Consistency since his return to the sport, something that could put him in a good position when it comes to chasing the championship this season.
The normal script was used by Lotus, flying under the radar during practice and qualifying, not setting the world alight with any significant fast times.
FP1 Kimi was 1.362seconds slower than Alonso, FP2 0.222seconds slower than Vettel and FP3 +0.006seconds from the fastest man of the session Felipe Massa.
But once qualifying did come around the strong performances of the Mercedes once again saw them to the front row ahead of triple world champion Sebastian Vettel.
?That was more or less all we could do today. I didn?t make any mistakes on my fastest lap so that was pretty much all there was to come from the car. I wouldn?t say it was a perfect lap, but I don?t think we would have been much higher up the order if it had been. The Mercedes, as we?ve seen before, seems to be pretty fast in qualifying but hopefully in the race we can turn it around. Our race pace has been pretty good all year so let?s try and get on the podium. I?ll have to make a good start, then let?s see what happens.? Kimi told formula1.com after qualifying.
The race didn’t start well for Kimi as he almost immediately lost a place to Fernando Alonso during the opening corners of the race.
On lap 7 Kimi regained fourth place by overtaking the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who as everyone predicted before the race began would not be replicating their qualifying form during Sunday afternoon.
By lap 15 he was past the other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and on lap 33 he got past Sebastian Vettel after a couple of laps of wheel-to-wheel racing.
Eventually a very late on the breaks Kimi got by to take third.
On lap 37 Fernando Alonso pitted from the lead of race losing the position to Kimi Raikkonen, but with the Ferrari being so strong all weekend within a couple of laps of putting on new tyres he was back out in front.
With Massa dropping back following his final pit-stop a third consecutive second place finish was all that Kimi could take.
?Unfortunately it?s second place again so it?s not time to celebrate too much. The car felt good and we did pretty much all we could today, but we didn?t have the pace to challenge Fernando [Alonso]. I drove to the maximum and it?s good for the championship that Sebastian finished behind us. It?s nice to be on the podium for me and the team; let?s see what we can do in Monaco.?
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