Kimi Buys 200,000 Euro Corvette in Charity Auction
From IltaSanomat.fi | Edited by Evenstar Saima

Yesterday evening in Monaco the glamourous Amber Fashion show took place. Beautiful models, celebrities and the F1 drivers were introduced as 500 Euros paying guests the latest in fashion.

Kimi Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen did not participate in the catwalk like Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Jenson Button, and Lewis Hamilton. But the Finns were a good presence as Kimi shouted during the occasion.

Kimi paid 200,000 euros (159 million pounds) for a 1974 Chevrolet Corvette owned by Hollywood actress Sharon Stone at a Monaco Grand Prix charity auction, organisers said.

The car, stored in Los Angeles, is twenty years old and said to have just four miles on the clock, was one of the top lots at a glittering Amber Fashion show in aid of the Elton John Aids Foundation on Friday night.From Formula1.com
"...And last but not least there was Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was not on the catwalk, but he was there in the front row, showing off a precious leather jacket from the collection....The 1974 vintage Corvette from the personal collection of Sharon Stone saw a fierce battle - Kimi Raikkonen left the field victorious, the price tag a cool 200.000 Euro."

Bravo! You can check out all the pics in the Photo HQ soon - Kimi had a really good time it seems and I'm glad he didn't do the catwalk actually, he would have been very bored indeed. Good on him!

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Old SS Delphine Kimi's Choice for Monaco Family Gathering
From MTV3.fi | Edited by Evenstar Saima

Formula One's world champion Kimi Räikkönen has brought his family and friends to the Monaco GP again this year. Räikkönen chose his boat from the period of the old SS Delphine-steamer, which is anchored in the port of Monaco.

SS Delphine was built in 1921 and it will be able to travel with a total of up to 180 people onboard. Among other things, Kimi's parents, brother Rami and their families want to stay on 78.5-meter board the weekend.

"As a general rule, the family will be here to see the race. It will be nice for them to have a boat and watch race from there," Räikkönen says. "This is a stylish classic boat. It could certainly be worse," Kimi continued.

Along with 180 people, at the same time there serves 32 crew members on board. The staff member, if necessary, may increase to 60. This involves a lot of the world's history. Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt worked in this room of World War II during the Yalta Agreement.

Kimi's mother Paula Räikkönen was quite taken into with her son's rental of a Luxury Yacht.

"This is quite a luxury. I heard that this is decorated in 1920s style," the mother-to-Räikkönen praises. "I have not had previously had such a wonderful boat, with one large cabin. We have been here for many years, in beautiful cabins, but this is something quite a luxury," she said.

Unique taste from Kimi there, it's nice that he gets to have his family, wife and friends close by during a race weekend. Hope they have a great time and see Kimi on the top step of the podium.

And don't forget, in Monte Carlo tonight Petra Ecclestone will be highlighting her fashion clothing line 'FORM' with the F1 drivers. Kimi may be participating with Jenni. You can read more on that here.

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| Free Practise 2 - Lewis Fastest Ahead of Nico, Kimi

Lewis Hamilton controlled the second Thursday practice session in Monte Carlo, leading the way for the majority of the hour.

The McLaren driver topped the times early on, then was briefly usurped by Nico Rosberg when the Williams switched to soft tyres halfway through the session.

But Rosberg only stayed at the head of the pack for ten minutes before Hamilton too went for the softer Bridgestones and improved to 1:15.140, beating the Williams' time by just under four tenths of a second.

Rosberg was able to hang on to second place however, ahead of Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, with Heikki Kovalainen fifth in the second McLaren.

Both Renaults were damaged in almost identical crashes at Sainte Devote. First the struggling Nelson Piquet spun into the barriers and deranged his rear wing, then his teammate Fernando Alonso lost control at the same spot 12 minutes later.

Unlike Piquet, Alonso managed to keep the car moving, but as he slid wildly sideways, his left-rear corner tagged the barriers, damaging the suspension and wing.

Although he successfully hauled the Renault back around to the pits, Alonso deposited plenty of debris along the way, forcing a four-minute red flag so the marshals could tidy up behind him.

While several other drivers had to short-cut the chicane, the only other men to actually strike the barriers were Jarno Trulli and Adrian Sutil. Trulli scraped his Toyota down the wall after a rough flight over the kerbs on the exit of the Swimming Pool, while Sutil lost his front wing on the Rascasse guard rail in the final minutes.

Despite his accident, Alonso managed to repeat his seventh place from the morning, just behind BMW's Robert Kubica. The two Hondas took eighth and tenth - with Jenson Button a scant 0.067 seconds faster than Rubens Barrichello - as Kazuki Nakajima edged the second Williams between them.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.140            40
 2.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:15.533  + 0.393   39
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.572  + 0.432   42
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.869  + 0.729   37
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.881  + 0.741   39
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.296  + 1.156   34
 7.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.310  + 1.170   27
 8.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.351  + 1.211   45
 9.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.372  + 1.232   40
10.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:16.418  + 1.278   32
11.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.426  + 1.286   44
12.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.688  + 1.548   46
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.094  + 1.954   39
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.131  + 1.991   39
15.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:17.246  + 2.106   35
16.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.251  + 2.111   33
17.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:17.379  + 2.239   28
18.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:17.581  + 2.441   38
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:18.176  + 3.036   31
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.225  + 3.085   38

Wow, it seems Lewis is looking pretty handy in the McLaren and it's going to be hard to beat him. Ferrari's superior straight line speed is hopeless on a slow circuit like Monaco, but they also lack in the raw mechanical grip which the McLaren enjoys, and strangely the super soft tyres are a problem for Ferrari in Monaco whereas McLaren seem okay with them. Kimi's consistantly lapping in the mid 1.15s but I wouldn't be surprised if Lewis was also lightely fuelled in this second session. Alonso, unusually, hit the wall and broke his Renault's rear wing and Kubica is also struggling in his BMW. Surprisingly, Nico has shown some good pace to split the McLaren and Ferrari apart.

Since this is the glamourous weekend of Monaco (and because Kimi decided to go for change with his helmet) I decided to give Kimi Raikkonen Space a Monaco special look too. Hope you like it! Feel free to use this image as your signature in forums:

So, the first day of practise is over and it's going well for Kimi but he needs to find something big for qualifying if he wants to win this race and you never know with the weather... Keep flying Kimi!

| Thursday Quotes - Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen - 3rd: "I would say this was a normal day of free practice. We went quite well, especially on used tyres in the morning. But we struggled a bit to do a time on new tyres in the second session and now we have to look at the data carefully to understand how to improve.

"There is plenty of time to do that and so I am not particularly worried, at least at the moment. A wet race? It would make matters complicated but it would be the same for everyone."

Felipe Massa - 4th: "Our rivals are very strong here, even allowing for the unknown factor of fuel loads. I wasn't able to do a good lap on the soft tyres, but things went well on the hard ones: we have to study the situation calmly and try to get all the details right. If we compare today with the same time last year, I think we have made a step forward. We have changed the settings on the car compared to the past and now we hope we will see the benefits of this choice."

Luca Baldisserri: "We were expecting a particularly difficult weekend and these three hours of free practice have not give us any reason to change our minds. While it is true that our preparations for this race have produced some results, it is equally true that our main rivals have not been twiddling their thumbs either and therefore have turned up here in very competitive shape.

"Our weak point today was mainly to do with performance on new tyres, especially on the softer tyre. We must carefully study the day and try and make the necessary changes so as to be competitive at the highest level. On top of that, we must also keep a careful eye on the weather, which could be the decisive factor for Saturday's qualifying and especially in Sunday's race."

| FP2 Videos - Short Onboard with Kimi, Alonso Damages Rear Wing, Massa Runs over Bollard 

                                      

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| Free Practise 1 - Kimi Leads Into Monaco Weekend!

Kimi Raikkonen beat Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time in opening practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, in a session interrupted by a long red flag to attend to a loose drain cover.

The 16-minute stoppage began just before the one-hour mark, after officials noticed the problem with the drain cover on the hill out of Sainte Devote. It was repaired in time for the session to resume for the final 21 minutes.

Hamilton had been quickest for McLaren prior to the interruption, having lapped in 1:17.078 early on. He then improved the benchmark to 1:16.216 shortly after the session was restarted

But with nine minutes to go, he was usurped by Raikkonen, as the Ferrari driver produced a 1:15.948 to beat Hamilton by 0.268 seconds. Those times would stand as neither driver managed a clear lap on their last runs.

Heikki Kovalainen beat Raikkonen's initial sector times in the second McLaren, but could not sustain the advantage around the final part of the lap and ended up third.

Raikkonen's teammate Felipe Massa completed the top four in the second Ferrari, with Williams' Nico Rosberg beating BMW's Robert Kubica to fifth place in the closing seconds.

Double Monaco winner Fernando Alonso took seventh, as his Renault teammate Nelson Piquet continued to struggle. The rookie was only 18th fastest in the session, 1.5 seconds slower than Alonso.

Behind Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Red Bull's Mark Webber, Monaco specialist Giancarlo Fisichella achieved an excellent 10th place for Force India, while the new Toro Rosso showed early promise as Sebastien Bourdais claimed 13th place.

Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld were the only drivers to fall foul of the barriers in the opening session. A brush with the wall on the approach to the tunnel broke the Toyota's suspension, and Trulli had to park on the exit of the chicane. Nick Heidfeld came to a halt at Casino Square around the same time after apparently damaging the rear of his BMW - the German quizzically examing the back of the car after exiting the cockpit - while a throttle problem on his Red Bull prevented David Coulthard from completing a flying lap, as his car came to a halt between the chicane and Tabac.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.948            26
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.216  + 0.268   27
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.248  + 0.300   28
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:16.292  + 0.344   26
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.653  + 0.705   27
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.834  + 0.886   23
 7.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:17.498  + 1.550   25
 8.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.511  + 1.563   26
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.798  + 1.850   23
10.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.835  + 1.887   26
11.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.942  + 1.994   26
12.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:18.153  + 2.205   26
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.245  + 2.297   30
14.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:18.263  + 2.315   13
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:18.274  + 2.326   28
16.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:18.360  + 2.412   16
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:18.360  + 2.412   25
18.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:18.955  + 3.007   32
19.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:19.176  + 3.228   35
20.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  No time              3

Great start for the Finns! Kimi and Heikki are hitting back in Monaco for revenge after a disappointing weekend in Turkey. So it looks like a straight battle between the Ferraris and McLarens again, but Kimi is looking in better shape around the circuit and that's good news to hear! Apparently Kimi touched the barrier somewhere on his final lap. Obviously still needing to get to grips with the Ferrari around Monte Carlo, it ain't no MP4/20!

And as you can see in the screenshot image above, Kimi's helmet isn't too different from his usual one but the design on the top and the back is very different!

| FP1 Videos - Kimi Brushes Against Barrier, Trulli Hits Barrier