Kimi Raikkonen smashes longstanding F1 records on date of greatest triumph

Eleven years to the day after securing his only F1 drivers' championship, Kimi Raikkonen marked 21 October with another slice of history, winning the 2018 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

In doing so, he became the oldest grand prix winner since Nigel Mansell in 1994 and the record holder for the longest gap between F1 victories.

The Finn, then 39 years old, had not stood on the top step since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, a run of 114 races without a win.

That figure eclipsed the previous mark of 98 races set by Riccardo Patrese, who went winless between the 1983 South African Grand Prix and the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix.

Raikkonen started second on the grid behind Lewis Hamilton's pole-sitting Mercedes but made the most of Ferrari's race pace in Austin, converting it into a lights-to-flag-style victory while team-mate Sebastian Vettel fought back from adversity to finish fourth, behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who rounded out the podium.

The result denied Hamilton, who needed to outscore Vettel by eight points, the chance to clinch his fifth drivers' title that weekend.

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Years in the wilderness

The five-and-a-half-year gap between Raikkonen's wins told its own story of misfortune and misalignment.

His 2013 triumph in Melbourne came for a Lotus squad whose finances deteriorated so badly by that November that the Finn was forced to sit out the final two rounds of the season.

A return to Ferrari for 2014 brought no respite: the F14 T was hamstrung by a pull-rod front suspension layout that never suited Raikkonen's preference for sharp front-end response.

From 2015 onward, as Mercedes dominated the hybrid era, Raikkonen's chances were further squeezed by team strategies that frequently prioritised Vettel's title bids.

Patrese's own seven-year drought, by comparison, had been a product of unreliable and uncompetitive machinery through stints at Alfa Romeo and a declining Brabham outfit between 1984 and 1987, before he finally ended it at Imola in 1990 after joining Williams during its switch to works Renault power.

For Raikkonen, the win in Austin would be the last of his 21 career victories, a fitting final flourish on a date that already carried the weight of his 2007 drivers' title with Ferrari at Interlagos.

Check out the most F1 races between victories below!