Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen admits that the Maranello team was never in realistic contention for victory in Sunday’s British Grand Prix and concedes Mercedes was simply quicker during the entire race weekend. Despite the fact that he was beaten to pole position by over half of second on Saturday, Kimi Raikkonen was able to keep Lewis Hamilton within touching distance during the opening stint at the Silverstone track on Sunday. The Finn’s pace gradually decreased in the latter stages as the Mercedes driver managed to opened up a comfortable gap of over ten seconds, before Kimi eventually suffered a dramatic front-left tyre delamination with four laps remaining and was forced to give the position to Valtteri Bottas.
After being forced to pit it looked as though the Scuderia Ferrari driver would miss out on a deserved podium finish, until his German teammate Sebastian Vettel suffered a similar fate, a puncture, and also on his front left tyre, thus giving Raikkonen the opportunity to move back up the order into third place. Despite recording just his third podium appearance of the season, the 2007 Formula One world champion reckons second place would have been the maximum result the Scuderia could have achieved in the 2017 British Grand Prix:
“We had a decent start but once we fell behind, we had no real chance to beat them. We could have been second today but we didn’t really have the speed against Lewis. Obviously we have some work to be done.” – Kimi Raikkonen admitted, as reported by the Italian media on Monday.
Scuderia Ferrari has not managed to score a Formula One win since the Monaco Grand Prix, which took place back in May, with rivals Mercedes taking three of the last four grand prix victories, making things difficult for the Maranello team in the Formula 1 Constructor Standings. It could have been a clean slate of wins had Lewis Hamilton’s headrest not come loose in Baku, though Kimi Raikkonen does not believe Mercedes’ recent form is a sign the team has gained a huge performance step over the Italian side: “I don’t know whether we are closer or not. I think the first part, yes but around the pitstops, probably not. So I have to say, obviously we have to look and try to learn. For sure the last few circuits the situation has not been ideal for us. I’m sure Hungary should be a better circuit for us, and our strengths, but of course we have to wait and see how it goes. We need to keep working hard and try to improve. Try to keep fighting as much as we can.” – the Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver concluded.
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