Kimi Vs Grosjean!

Over the years there has been many great inter-team rivalries... Senna & Prost, to more recently Hamilton & Alonso. Both of which were explosive and resulted in some great years of F1. 

Ham and Alo had a fiery rivalry in 2007

The most famous rivalry in F1

This season the team with the biggest battle (for me) is not a direct front runner, but instead it is Lotus! Lotus have completely blown me away this season with being right up there fighting for wins and podiums. Yet when you look close enough, its not hard to see why. They have 2 great drivers. 

• Kimi was and still is world class and he can pull out a lap when he needs to. 
• Grosjean has been at the team Renault/Lotus for a few years now (although some of it was as a reserve driver)  so he knows the team well.

RACE BY RACE- 

• Australia- Grosjean out qualified Kimi in the opening race of the season but retired early after a collision with Maldonardo. Kimi had a strong race considering he started in 18th, he came through to 'Finnish' 7th. 
• Kimi 1-1 Grosjean
• Malaysia- On the Saturday at Kuala Lumpur Kimi vastly improved on his qualifying last race and got himself to 5th! An improvement was also seen by Grosjean as the youngster qualified 7th. On the race day Grosjean made a great start and got himself up to 3rd. Then the rain came down and Grosjean was on the wrong tyres at the wrong time and spun out on lap 4. 2 races & 2 DNF's for the Frenchman. Kimi finished 5th after an unremarkable race. 
• Kimi 3-1 Grosjean
• China- Kimi got another 5th on the Saturday whilst Grosjean had to settle for 10th. On raceday, Grosjean had a strong race and showed his critics -who after the first 2 races were doubting him- that he deserved his seat as he finished 5th. Kimi's tyres just die on him at the end of the race and he falls to 10th. 
• Kimi 4-2 Grosjean
• Bahrain- Not a strong Quali for either of the Lotus men as Grosjean ends up 7th with Kimi all the way back in 11th. However- both drivers show great race pace and finish with Kimi 2nd and Grosjean 3rd. 
• Kimi 5-3 Grosjean
• Spain- A strong Saturday for Lotus as Kimi gets 5th and Grosjean starts 1 spot ahead of him in 4th. In the race they were both strong but Kimi just managed his tyres a bit better to get on the podium in 3rd while his teammate was just behind in 4th. 
• Kimi 6-4 Grosjean
• Monaco- The Frenchman out-qualified his more experienced teammate as he was 5th with Kimi in 8th. In the race though, Grosjean's inexperience showed as he crashed out whilst Kimi got some points in 9th.
• Kimi 7-5 Grosjean
• Canada- Once again Grosjean was victorious of his Scandinavian rival in Quali. Kimi didn't get into the top 10 and started 12th whilst Grosjean got to 7th on the grid. Kimi had a good race and made up some places to get an 8th but Grosjean was the star of the show as he saved his tyres well and drove a mammoth stint on 1 set of tyres. This paid off and while everyone else was struggling for grip he powered through to get a 2nd!
• Kimi 7-7 Grosjean

So its all square as we head to Valencia and what will happen there, nobody knows in this unpredictable season. This will be a fascinating battle to watch over the season to see if Grosjean can continue to match his experience teammate or if Kimi will use his age to run away from him. 

Thank you for reading, please share it if you enjoyed!

They both look happy enough here, but who will be laughing at the end of the season?