Before the Grand Prix today, the 2007 World Champion got presented with a cake from his Alfa Romeo team celebrating the fact the Finn reached the big milestone of 300 Grand Prix events in Formula One, becoming only the fifth driver to do so.  

Congrats, legend 👑#Kimi300 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/ac9Xo9uDG6

— Alfa Romeo Racing (@alfaromeoracing) May 26, 2019

It was a difficult Sunday for the 21-time race winner, however. From 14th on the grid, he dropped to 17th on the opening lap – and had contact with the Racing Point of Lance Stroll at the hairpin. He tried overtaking the Canadian later in the race and the pair made contact again. 

After deciding not to pit behind the Safety Car early in the race, Raikkonen found himself in P12. Unfortunately for the Finn, it didn’t work and following his stop, he found himself in P17 – and that’s where he finished.  

Raikkonen said: “We didn’t expect this to be an easy weekend and unfortunately it turned out to be the case. It was quite a boring race and there was nowhere to pass: we finished where we were on lap one. Even though I had front wing damage, some issues before and after the stop and I was hit by Stroll, none of these things ultimately had any impact on our finishing position. Once you’re behind a car, you’re stuck there unless they have a massive issue – it’s just how it is in Monaco. We tried something different with the strategy as it made no sense to copy what those in front of us did, but in the end, it didn’t make us move forward. The only thing that could have given us a chance was rain, but it didn’t come.” 

Happy 300th @FIA @F1 Grand Prix dear Kimi ! #Kimi300GP #F1 #MonacoGP 🇲🇨 pic.twitter.com/Y60gzQJZwD

— Jean Todt (@JeanTodt) May 26, 2019