Kimi Raikkonen was forced to settle for seventh place in the Canadian Grand Prix, with problems at both ends of Sunday’s race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Having started fourth on the grid, the Scuderia Ferrari slipped to sixth by the time they arrived at turn one, and fell behind Sergio Perez into seventh before the end of the lap, and despite switching to a two-stop strategy, brake issues prevented him from bettering seventh.
“At the start I got wheelspin off the line and obviously we lost quite a few places,” said Raikkonen. “From that moment it was not an easy race: I struggled in the first few laps, it was difficult to get past.
“We decided to switch our tactics to two stops to create a speed difference with fresh tyres. We had a very good pace again and we were nicely going back close to the guys in front.”
Raikkonen was closing on the battle for the podium between Daniel Ricciardo, Perez and Esteban Ocon after his second stop but began struggling with his brakes, which saw him fall behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel after running off track at the final corner, and he lost a significant amount of time in the closing laps as they worsened further.
“Unfortunately, we had the issue with the brakes and we could not really use our speed,” said Raikkonen. “In the last ten laps I had hardly no brakes; it’s a pity but at least we could bring the car back and get some points.
“It was not an easy day for the team but this is how it goes sometimes. If this is our bad day, then we have to take it and go forward.”
