Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was left considering what could have been after a first corner collision with teammate Sebastian Vettel resulted in a long recovery race for the Finn.
Raikkonen, having out-qualified Vettel, made a strong start from the second row but ran slightly wide into turn one. Meanwhile, Daniil Kvyat took advantage of a gap on the inside of the two Ferrari drivers to take third place. The Russian’s move, combined with Raikkonen coming back onto the racing line, squeezed Vettel and resulted in the German colliding with the rear of his teammate’s car and both cars sustained damage but Raikkonen’s was more severe.
Speaking after the race, the Finn analysed his race: “I have no idea of what happened at the start, I suddenly got hit and spun. I had a puncture in the left front tire and a front wing damage, but I managed to get back to the pits. Once I went back on track I found myself more or less in last place, the car felt a bit tricky, but I tried to do my best to charge through the field.”
In regards to the incident with his teammate, Raikkonen commented: “Seb came to apologise to me afterwards and it’s obvious he didn’t run into me on purpose. Unfortunately, this does not change things for the race but it’s only the third round of a long season.”
The early Safety Car period for debris on track allowed Raikkonen to close onto the back of the field but the Finn toiled in the opening stint after the Safety Car. His final pit stop, saw Raikkonen fit a set of soft tyres which allowed him more speed and grip in the closing laps and as a result he was able to attack to climb further up the order. The Ferrari driver put in some great moves on both the Williams drivers and Lewis Hamilton to take the checkered flag in fifth place.
“At the beginning I struggled a bit, but then I managed to recover some places. Obviously, the fifth position is not ideal and not what we were looking for, but after what happened, it’s not a disaster.”
