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Kimi Raikkonen Once Hid in a Ditch to Escape Military Punishment

Samriddhi Jaiswal
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Kimi Raikkonen Once Hid in a Ditch to Escape Military Punishment

There are many things that describe Kimi Raikkonen. He is famously nicknamed the Iceman and is also known for bringing the glory back to Maranello in 2007 and being the last driver to achieve so.

But the Finnish driver’s career is filled with eccentric stories that amaze his fans and reveal a new side of the Iceman.

Raikkonen took retirement from Formula 1 at the of the 2021 season after 1 championship title, 21 race wins and 103 podium finishes.

But despite him leaving the sport and spending time with his family, the stories about him continue to live on. One of the many of those quirky stories comes from the time he served in the military.

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Kimi Raikkonen hid in a ditch to avoid being caught drunk

Raikkonen underwent 12 months of mandatory military service in Finland at the age of 18 and created chaos on the premises with his friend.

On one of the nights, he went out with his friend and got drunk. They got late to reach the premises and therefore could not use the main entrance.

The duo decided to climb over the fence but his friend got caught by the authorities. Meanwhile, Raikkonen hid in a ditch while the military police were looking for him with dogs.

The young Finnish then crawled his way to the barracks and hid under his bed hoping to hide there until the morning.

But his friend ratted out on him and the police found him hiding under his bed muddy and covered in twigs and drunk.

Raikkonen was confined in his barracks

After his superiors found him, the 18-year-old Raikkonen was questioned about how did he manage to get past the dogs.

To which, he answered, “That’s what you teach us here, we are scouts.” He was later confined to his barracks for about 20 days and in doing so, he set another new record.

The entire story was revealed in a book written by Kari Hotakainen titled ‘The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen.’

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About the author

Samriddhi Jaiswal

Samriddhi Jaiswal

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Samriddhi Jaiswal is an F1 editor and writer at The SportsRush. She started her career as a business journalist but soon found her calling in lights out here we go! Samriddhi has been a Ferrari fan even when her interaction with F1 was occasional. Her first real experience with the thrilling sport came when Charles Leclerc clinched his iconic victory in Spa and Monza and painted the track red. Now, a Tifosi, Samriddhi is a hardcore fan of the prancing horse and can relate to the chaos within the Italian camp and also admires Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Off the track, she finds her home in books and musical instruments.

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