Formula 1: Kimi Raikkonen vs. Valtteri Bottas – Who will ‘Finnish’ higher?

One of the most interesting battles in the Formula 1 driver standings this season has been for third place between the two Finnish drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. Who will “Finnish” higher?

Finnish drivers Kimi Raikkonen of Scuderia Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport are currently battling for third place in the Formula 1 driver standings with eight races remaining on the 21-race 2018 schedule.

The 38-year-old Raikkonen currently sits in third place in the driver standings with 146 points while the 29-year-old Bottas trails him by two points with 144.

The championship will likely come down to the wire between the teammates of these two drivers, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (214 points, five victories) and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (231 points, five victories), the two four-time Formula 1 champions currently competing in the sport, and the battle for third place looks like it will likely do the same.

Will Raikkonen or Bottas “Finnish” higher?

Through the first 13 races of the season, neither Raikkonen nor Bottas has won a race. In fact, they are the only two drivers currently in the top six in the driver standings who have not yet won at least one race this season, as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing teammates Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who sit in fifth and sixth place in the standings with 120 and 118 points, have won one and two races, respectively, so far in 2018.

More from Formula One

• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
• Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
• Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
• Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points

Raikkonen’s most recent victory came in his second and final season driving for Lotus back in 2013 when he won the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix. Bottas’s most recent victory came in last year’s season finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in what was his first season driving for Mercedes.

Raikkonen has finished in the top 10 in 10 races so far this season while Bottas has finished in the top 10 in 11 of them. Both drivers have finished in the top five in nine races in 2018. However, Raikkonen has racked up eight podium finishes while Bottas has only racked up five.

The fact that only two of Raikkonen’s eight podium finishes so far are second place finishes while all five of Bottas’s podium finishes are second place finishes is a huge reason why the drivers are separated by just two points in the driver standings despite the fact that Raikkonen has finished on the podium in three more races than Bottas has.

Another reason why this is the case is because of the fact that Raikkonen has been forced to retire from three races while Bottas has only been forced to retire from two. Raikkonen’s average is 6.46 while Bottas’s is 5.85.

While neither Verstappen nor Ricciardo can be counted out of the battle for third place in this season’s driver standings quite yet, this battle does appear like it will come down to the two Finnish drivers. Both of them have had different advantages over the other throughout the year, so it will be interesting to see who will ultimately emerge as the sport’s top “#2 driver” behind either Vettel or Hamilton.

Which driver will “Finnish” in third place in this year’s Formula 1 driver standings? Will Kimi Raikkonen do so for the first time since he did so driving for Lotus in the 2012 season, or will Valtteri Bottas do so for the second consecutive season?