Kimi Raikkonen had a solid start to his weekend in Baku with the Alfa Romeo man being the 11th quickest driver on the track. However, it was not like the ‘Iceman’ didn’t have his fair share of problems on Friday. The Finn was heard complaining on the radio about his car’s battery being completely drained out before the lap was even over.

He was heard in conversation with his engineer on the team radio saying, “Something is wrong with the settings. I’m draining my battery completely before the start/finish line. Why is it completely empty? 

“Where is the issue? In the settings somewhere? You check and you tell me what the problem can be. How difficult can it be? Is there something that we can do 1 lap? There was this issue on the first lap also on the car. Nobody noticed.”

Despite all of his grumblings, Kimi can consider the first free practice session as an unqualified success. For a good while it looked as though he might end the session in the top 10, but a late charge from Alonso denied him the opportunity. He’ll be hoping that’s not the case come Sunday.

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Kimi Raikkonen will be desperate to get his first point of the season in Baku

Alfa Romeo have made quite the leap in performance as a team despite the stringent regulations. They have gone from being wooden spoon contenders alongside Haas and Williams to being a lower mid-table team. However, despite that, they have only managed 1 point this season thanks to Antonio Giovinazzi.

The 2007 world champion will hope to contribute to his team’s cause too in Baku. Kimi’s last top 10 finish in F1 came 10 races ago, at the Emilia Romagna GP 2020. He’ll be hoping to amend that stat by the end of this weekend.

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Raikkonen has had some success at this venue. He finished P10 with Alfa Romeo the last time F1 visited these shores in 2019. He also managed to finish P2 in 2018 during his last season with Ferrari.

He’ll take a great deal of hope from that fact. But achieving a points finish here will be easier said than done. The long straights don’t necessarily help a team that doesn’t quite have brilliant pace. Nevertheless, this track is known to throw up some interesting results. So only time will tell if Raikkonen can end his points drought.

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