Kimi Raikkonen felt it was a far from straightforward day at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Friday despite the Finn finishing both free practice sessions fourth fastest.
He ended up 1.152 seconds off the pace of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team in the morning session, but closed that gap down to 0.398 seconds in the afternoon, however the Scuderia Ferrari driver admitted the car was more difficult to drive than he would have liked, and it meant a day of chasing the set-up of the SF70-H.
However, Raikkonen remains confident that he and Ferrari can turn the weekend around on Saturday, and he expects to be in the hunt for a front row start during the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.
“It was not an easy day: for whatever reason, it was difficult to drive and put the car where I wanted,” said Raikkonen. “I was looking for a better balance overall.
“For sure we have some work to do for tomorrow, but that’s a normal story on Friday. It’s difficult to say something about the performance; it’s only the first free practice, lap times don’t mean much and we don’t know what other people are doing.
“If we can get the car more to our liking, then we can improve and be faster.”
