Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, the year’s first Formula One race in North America, promises to be especially interesting for Finnish motor sports fans.
Valtteri Bottas, 23, who is in his first F1 season, earned a surprisingly strong position in Saturday’s rainy qualifying session: third, the highest grid placing of his short career. It is also a major boost for his Williams team, who are suffering their worst start to a season with no points in six races so far.
Just behind him in fourth place will be German-Finnish driver Nico Rosberg. The Mercedes driver won in Monaco and took pole at each of the last three rounds of the championship. He is the son of Keke Rosberg, who in 1982 became the first Finn to win the Formula One championship.
Räikkönen pushed down one rung
Another former Finnish F1 champ, Lotus's Kimi Räikkönen, will start 10th despite coming in ninth on the Montreal street circuit on Saturday. He was bumped down one row after a pit-lane infringement.
Räikkönen is now second overall in the season behind Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who scored the pole position.
Vettel has now earned 39 pole positions, the third-most of all time behind Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. Lewis Hamilton has 27, Finland’s Mika Häkkinen 26 and Räikkönen 16.
Britain's 2008 world champion Hamilton starts second on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, one of the most demanding courses in Formula One because of its super-fast long straights and slow, tight corners.
Bottas promises river plunge
The struggling Williams team were in high spirits after Bottas weaved his way through the traffic to qualify third.
"This means a lot. It's way more up in the grid than we could have imagined," said Bottas, who has been tipped as a future star and has retired double champion Häkkinen as a mentor.
"The first six races have been so difficult, so this will be a nice boost for the team. We got everything just right today."
Bottas, known as an excellent driver in slippery conditions, will be hoping for more rainy weather to give him an edge over drivers with cars that will be faster on dry tarmac.
"It might be tricky again. If that's the case, it's going to be about the right strategy, being at the right time with the right tyre," he told Autosport.
"A good start is important and basically after that is about trying to keep as many quick cars behind me as possible, because the pace in the dry is still not quite enough for a top 10. So it's going to be tricky," added Bottas.
The Finn has promised to jump into the St Lawrence River in celebration if he earns points from the race.
"I'm used to swimming in frozen lakes in Finland, so it's no problem," quipped Bottas.
The race begins at 9pm Finnish time.