Kimi Raikkonen admitted that his first practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix on Friday was a difficult one, but he was much happier with the second session, where he ended second fastest behind Nico Rosberg.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver could only place sixth in the first session but worked on the set-up of his SF16-H ahead of the second session, and set a best time of 1:44.427 to end just 0.275 seconds behind Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver Rosberg, while his long run pace also looked promising.
Raikkonen was cautiously optimistic that the pace is there this weekend for Ferrari to challenge towards the front of the field, with the Italian outfit still seeking their first victory of 2016.
“The first practice session was tricky, I struggled a little bit, but the second practice was good: everything worked and the car was handling pretty well,” said Raikkonen.
“Here in Singapore, if you get the car right, it’s a lot easier to go faster. Today we had quite a good feeling, but for sure there is still something to improve. It’s hard to say if we can be strong, it’s only Friday, but the feeling was positive.
“So far so good, but tomorrow is another day, we’ll see where everybody is and then we’ll go from there. We’ll give our best and hopefully we have the speed to challenge our rivals.”
