Kimi Raikkonen has admitted his disappointment at only finishing fourth at the Italian Grand Prix, despite it being the best he could have hoped for.
The Finn started fourth on the grid at Monza, behind teammate Sebastian Vettel. In front of their home crowd, Ferrari was hoping to produce the result they had been striving for all year, but the pace of the Mercedes was too much for them.
After getting a brilliant start, which saw both Ferrari’s jump into the top three, it looked like the team could get both cars onto the podium. A two-stop strategy saw that hope fade away, however, as Mercedes, who had the edge all weekend on pace, only completed a one-stop race.
“Obviously, we were on different tactics, but we did the correct things, the right choice with tyres and the fastest race we could,” Kimi said post-race. “We had a pretty good speed but we were not fast enough for gaining a better position.
“Fourth position is not exactly what we were looking for, but this is not the easiest circuit for us against the Mercedes, and we did our maximum.”
After having a few run-ins with his teammate in the last few races, it was a largely trouble-free race at Monza. Raikkonen stated that is was difficult to get passed or close to Vettel in the race as the team had them on the same strategy, so any advantages that could be made (for example, an undercut) were not possible.
“With Sebastian, we were more or less driving behind each other and when you race against your teammate there’s not much that you can do, we both know what the other guy is going to do,” he explained. “After the start, it was a bit tricky, I got close after the first pit stop, but then he was able to pull away.
“In the last few weekends it seems that we are going in the right direction, now we have to keep trying and improving doing our maximum. Every race is a different story, a small mistake here and there from somebody might give us a chance, who knows.”
Raikkonen briefly looked as if he may be deployed in an effort to hold up Hamilton, as he dropped off the rear of Vettel in front, but it didn’t work as he finished fourth, just off of the podium.
Having brought an engine update to this race, it looks like Ferrari may be faster than the Red Bull’s again, taking the title of ‘best of the rest’ back from the Austrian team.
Vettel and Raikkonen both drove clear and fairly uneventful races today, but their pace was strong and they were in prime position to pick up Mercedes slack if anything went wrong for the reigning world champions.
Raikkonen did admit his surprise at Ferrari’s pace saying: “We were closer to our rivals than we expected after qualifying.”
Therefore, it seems that even with the engine upgrade, Ferrari was expecting a threat from behind from Red Bull so it will be reassuring to have seen Ricciardo just over 17 seconds behind Raikkonen at the chequered flag.
The Ferrari’s pace does seem to have improved after this engine upgrade, so they could regain second in the Constructors’ standings between now and the end of the season. It seems clear that their engine suits high-speed circuits more than the Red Bull, but with Singapore coming up next the Red Bull’s could gain the advantage back.
