At the same time McLaren did not take up their option on Montoya for 2007, while his teammate Kimi Räikkönen remained a free agent, although it was later revealed that Räikkönen had signed with Ferrari for 2007 before Alonso had signed his McLaren deal.

A week later at the, Räikkönen suffered another Mercedes engine failure due to an oil leak ; his 2nd place qualifying place became 12th.

On Lap 28, Button led Frentzen by 5. 8 seconds as Schumacher overtook Räikkönen ( the top Michelin runner, having already passed Wilson ) for third place, then taking second five laps later from Heinz-Harold Frentzen.

Teammate Räikkönen also lost a significant portion of his deflector, which became imbedded under his side barge board ; mechanics were later seen removing it during a pit stop.

Kubica later joked that he should thank Hamilton for electing to crash into Räikkönen instead of him.

A few laps later, Räikkönen damaged his tyres with a lock up of his front-right whilst lapping Jacques Villeneuve who ignored blue flags, losing a small amount of time to Alonso as he ran wide.

Three laps later, the gap was reduced to 1. 2 seconds, with all cars except the top 6 at least one lap behind the leader Räikkönen.

From the Monaco Grand Prix, the FW25 proved to be the class of the field, allowing Montoya to take victory at Circuit de Monaco from Kimi Räikkönen.

Montoya left the team on a high note by winning his last race with them, the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, which was closely contested with future team mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Montoya had a solid race at Monaco, inheriting second place 14. 5 seconds behind championship leader Fernando Alonso after Räikkönen and Mark Webber went out with engine problems on lap 50.

Despite the disappointment of the 2004 season, Räikkönen was still seen as one of the rising stars of the sport, along with BAR's Button, Renault's Alonso and 2005 McLaren teammate Montoya.

The following race, the, saw Alonso clinch the Drivers ' Championship, after finishing third behind Montoya and Räikkönen.

Räikkönen eventually finished 5th, with team mate Montoya ahead in 3rd place.

Juan Pablo Montoya won the race ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Michael Schumacher who were less than two seconds behind Montoya at the finish.

Afterwards Räikkönen remained in mathematical contention for the championship with one race to go ; whilst Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya dropped out of the hunt after being penalized for an incident on Lap 3 with Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello.

The cars on the " clean " side of the track got off the grid much better, with Räikkönen taking the lead ahead of Olivier Panis and the two Schumachers ( all from the left side of the grid ) ( with the likes of Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard and Montoya dropping back on the right ) and managing to open up a lead of 1. 6 seconds over Panis ' Toyota and Ralf Schumacher's Williams.

However the rain returned during the first round of scheduled pit stops, and when the championship contenders pitted – Montoya on Lap 17, Räikkönen on Lap 19 and Schumacher on Lap 20 – they all chose to stay with dry tires.

On Lap 38, having cut 1. 5 seconds per lap from Button's lead, Schumacher reclaimed first while the other two Championship contenders, Räikkönen and Montoya, lay fourth and tenth despite the track beginning to dry out once more.

Montoya did eventually lay to rest the ghost of this event by winning the 2004 race in his final Grand Prix for Williams before moving to McLaren, holding off his future team-mate Kimi Räikkönen to take a hard-fought victory.

Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion at the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix, his third place behind winner Juan Pablo Montoya and championship rival Kimi Räikkönen enough to clinch the title with two races remaining.

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya finished 18 seconds behind in second position while McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen came home in third place and was the only other driver apart from Montoya, not to be lapped by Schumacher.

The early laps were held in changeable conditions, and the race ended up as a duel between Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya, who were to be McLaren team-mates for 2005.

Furthermore Rubens Barrichello got closer to his team mate and was followed by Jos Verstappen, David Coulthard and Kimi Räikkönen causing a line of cars behind Montoya.

Barrichello came third ahead of a disappointed Montoya and an astounding Kimi Räikkönen in 5th, in only 11th race which in turn was only his 34th single seater race.

The Williams of Montoya was fastest in the final practice session before qualifying with Räikkönen second fastest and Montoya's teammate, Ralf Schumacher, third fastest.

With Montoya out, Schumacher was able to take it easy, while his team-mate set about Coulthard for second position, after the Scot had passed both Barrichello and Räikkönen during the pit stops.

Michael Schumacher eventually passed Trulli on the 46th lap, but an unforced error by Räikkönen allowed Montoya to seize second position.

Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have all won drivers world championships driving for the team.

Räikkönen entered Formula One as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in.

Along with rallying, Räikkönen has turned his attention towards NASCAR, and made his debut for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

After further tests in Jerez and Barcelona, Sauber signed Räikkönen for the season.

Räikkönen, long linked to Sauber's engine supplier Ferrari, instead sufficiently impressed McLaren to earn a race seat in Ron Dennis's team for, taking the seat left vacant by double-world champion, mentor and fellow Finn Mika Häkkinen.

In the penultimate race of the year, at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan, Räikkönen took his 7th victory of the season after starting 17th on the grid ( as rain, and an engine failure for Räikkönen, had mixed up the qualifying grid ).

Räikkönen testing for McLaren at Circuit de Valencia | Valencia in early 2006.

Räikkönen testing for McLaren at Silverstone Circuit | Silverstone in April 2006.

Räikkönen qualified on pole for the by 2 thousandths of a second from Michael Schumacher.

The saw another retirement for Räikkönen due to throttle problems.

After the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari announced that Räikkönen had signed a three-year contract with Scuderia Ferrari for the 2007 – 2009 seasons.

Räikkönen driving for Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, where he finished fourth.

Barrichello qualified third for the, ahead of Schumacher and Räikkönen.

At Monaco, Barrichello was pipped for pole by a late-charging Button and Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen.

Kimi Räikkönen driving for Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari ( 2007 )

However, the stewards decided after the race to apply a drive-through penalty for Hamilton's pass on Räikkönen ( i. e. a 25-second penalty ) after they had deemed that Hamilton had cut a corner in the Bus Stop chicane.

He was the second driver after Räikkönen to win a race despite a grid penalty for changing an engine.

The retirement moved Räikkönen into 8th, eyeing his first point for the 2004 season.

Räikkönen stopped for dry tyres at the end of the formation lap.