Kimi Raikkonen was one of the stars of the Portuguese Grand Prix, despite not scoring a point. 

The Finn had one of the greatest opening laps in Formula 1 history as he stormed up to 6th from P16 on the grid as small drops of rain fell. His initial launch wasn’t that great, but he then proceeded picked off cars left, right and centre to gain those 10 places.  

From P16 to P6 😎

An amazing start for Kimi Raikkonen at Portimao 🚀#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/cRneQ4dw2O

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 25, 2020

Raikkonen was left bemused at how easy it was as he picked them off like it was a video game.  

“I don’t think the start itself was very good – I lost a place – but then after that honestly I thought at one point ‘what are the others doing?’” he said. 

As things settled down, the limitations of his car and engine left him vulnerable to faster cars and lost 10th place to Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race.   

“I had a good first and then second lap, the speed was decent in the car most of the race, then we had a little bit of difficulties in the pit stop and in the end I lost 10th place to Vettel with old tyres. 

“We got nothing out of it, so that’s a shame. We need more speed then everything will become a little bit easier.” 

Imola is next weekend and Raikkonen is the only driver on the current grid to have raced there in Formula 1 previously.  

“We’ll see how it is, it has to be better than here. In the race it was not too bad, but when you start where we start [down the grid] you need to take some chances more. It’s not ideal. But unfortunately we are lacking a little bit of speed.” 

Rivals praise Raikkonen’s stunning first lap 

Verstappen was ‘’shocked’’ to see Raikkonen behind him after the Finn’s astonishing start. 

“I had Kimi behind me,” said Verstappen. “I was shocked about that because I thought “Am I really going to… like, what’s going on?!” 

“Kimi was flying, probably his rally driving helped him a bit in the first lap or something because that was pretty impressive. He must have been P6?” 

Hamilton chipped in saying: “Shows you can still do it at 40 [Raikkonen turned 41 eight days ago]” and Verstappen replied: “Clearly!” 

Alex Albon said “Kimi was flying. It looked like he was on a different track to all of us.” 

Daniel Ricciardo had moved up from P10 but was surprised to see Raikkonen appear in his mirrors and ultimately passing him: “[ I knew he] didn’t start 11th or 12th…so I was like ‘where did he come from?!’” 

“I wasn’t thinking ‘get out of my way [after the Finn overtook him]’, I felt like he’d earned his spot. 

“Obviously the first few laps were mega from Kimi, but it felt like he had the pace to hold it. 

“I eventually got past him, but his pace wasn’t slow. On the medium, I had to defend in the first few laps and he was hanging with me. 

“I could see in my mirrors, he had some decent pace. 

“Obviously all deserved, when I’m fighting an Alfa, we’re probably not on for a podium today, but he had some really decent pace. That was my battle for today, I had to accept it.”