Kimi Raikkonen was left disappointed following the Japanese Grand Prix after only salvaging a fifth place from a promising weekend for the Finn.
The 2007 world champion had shown strong pace throughout practice and qualified an impressive third behind the two Mercedes drivers. However, his race was dealt a blow early on Sunday when his Ferrari team announced a gearbox change was necessary, thus dropping Raikkonen five places on the grid to eighth.
The Finn made a strong start, aided by Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo being slow off the line, and by the end of his first stint Kimi was up to fourth place.
However, Raikkonen would lose time behind Sergio Perez and Jolyon Palmer’s Renault, this meant Hamilton emerged from his first stop just in front of the Ferrari, who was making his way past Perez on the main straight.
For the rest of the race, Raikkonen jumped Ricciardo thanks to an early stop, as well as poor pace from the Red Bull driver, but further progress was not possible for the 2005 Suzuka winner who remains fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, just five points ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
After the race, Raikkonen was left ruing a missed opportunity: “After a good qualifying yesterday, the issue with the gearbox and the consequent starting position change was not ideal in this kind of track,” he said.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of disappointment, as we had a good car and if we could have stayed in front we would have fought with more free air and with a lot of speed. For sure today we were fast enough for a better result. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes.”
