Kimi Raikkonen has always been a fan-favorite driver since the beginning of his career. He has been known for his no-nonsense persona as well as unintentionally funny and short replies. He does not interact with his fans much, so it was a nice change when he consoled his young fan at the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix.

That particular young fan, Thomas, is now all grown up and still supports Raikkonen in his last season as an F1 driver. His parents took to social media to show him celebrating Kimi’s result at the Russian Grand Prix.

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2017 young fan celebrate the 2007 world champion’s result at Sochi

Thomas attended the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix with his parents and was sitting in the grandstands. At the start of the race, Raikkonen crashed into the side of Max Verstappen, which left him with suspension damage. The damage meant that the then Ferrari driver had to retire from the race.

This devastated the young Thomas, who was left inconsolable in the stands. Ferrari made a sweet gesture when they invited Thomas to their hospitality area and gave him the chance to meet his hero. Raikkonen consoled the young fan and gave him his signed cap.

In 2021, we saw Thomas cheering for his hero from his home as Kimi finished P8 at the Russian Grand Prix. This is even sweeter as this is Raikkonen’s final year in the sport.

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We were just too slow: Kimi Raikkonen

The Alfa Romeo driver finished the Russian Grand Prix in P8, which is his best result of the season so far. The Finnish driver started the race in P15 but made no significant progress throughout the race. But he benefitted from the rain and pitted for the intermediate tires and came out in P7 before being passed at the end for P8.

” I much rather be a bit higher up, but I think generally you know nothing too much. We made a good start and getting some positions and then followed the Alpine most of the race. I felt the car was behaving well, but we were a bit too slow to really make progress.

I felt like I had more speed, but when the straight opened up, I had no chance to overtake him. Luckily, we made the right call. I felt that it was too wet already, and we were the early ones to come in change tires and it paid off in the end.” said Kimi.

Raikkonen will look to build momentum from his result at Sochi before he caps off his career. Kimi will retire at the end of the season after almost 20 years in the sport.

Tell us your favorite Kimi memories.