Kimi Räikkönen admitted he was lucky to finish Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after hitting the wall at speed just after the final safety period of the afternoon.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver had already survived a close encounter on the way to the starting grid before the race even got started and found himself involved in a first lap tangle with Esteban Ocon that required him to pit immediately with a damaged front wing, but ultimately finished in second position for his third visit to the podium of the season.
However, Räikkönen was relieved to even see the chequered flag after striking the wall on the final kink heading towards the start/finish line, with the Finn admitting that he was lucky that he did not have a massive accident because of it.
“On the first lap after the restart on the little kink coming to the last part of the straight I hit the inside wall at full speed,” said Räikkönen during the post-race press conference.
“I’m pretty lucky that the front wheel didn’t go. I was expecting to go off quite fast, but I was lucky.”
Räikkönen’s second place moves the Finn up to third place in the Drivers’ Championship, behind only Azerbaijan Grand Prix race winner Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who the thirty-eight-year-old Finn was able to beat for a second consecutive race weekend.
