2018 French GP: Kimi Raikkonen reaction and impressions after the race

An accident at the start, duels on the track and a well thought out strategy which delivered a third and a fifth place for Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. Scuderia Ferrari thus made the best of what turned into a bad situation right from the start. In the last few laps Kimi Raikkonen was very quick and had Ricciardo in his sights, but there were backmarkers to be dealt with. The first scrap came at the start of lap 47 and then Kimi made the decisive move at the chicane and was in a podium position. Right at the end the Virtual Safety Car was used after Stroll went off. Scuderia Ferrari picked up 25 points, which one minute into the race had seemed an impossibility. It was down to the determination of the drivers and the cool headed approach of the guys on the pit wall.

“I think everybody more or less got similar starts and it felt quite slippery in the first corner. I chose to go outside but it was the wrong side in the end, I should have slowed down a bit an cut in on the inside, so I got a bit blocked with all the mayhem that happened. Then we did a decent recovery in the long stint and things worked well and in the end we had a lot of speed and I managed to get on the podium.” – Kimi Raikkonen said at the end of the 2018 French Grand Prix.

Asked to comment on the Sebastian Vettel’s penalty due to the incident with Bottas, the Finnish driver added: “I didn’t even know that he got a penalty. I saw quickly kind-of what happened but I only see the part when they touched. Things happen, y’know, and obviously, there is stewards, they give penalties if they feel it is the right thing, sometimes they think not for others and we live with it. Is it fair sometimes? Maybe not – but y’know, I think it’s balancing out in the long run between all of us. So, yeah, unfortunate for both of them – but that’s what happens sometimes.”

The next grand prix is a completely different scenario to this one. What can be projected for the Austrian Grand Prix? – “Hopefully good things. Impossible to really say. It’s a slightly different circuit. We need to make a good weekend out of it. It’s going to be pretty close. I don’t see massive difference between the top three times – but I might be wrong.” – Kimi Raikkonen concluded.