Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen believes his Canadian Grand Prix was hampered by his qualifying result, where the Finn started fifth after a mistake.
Räikkönen made a mistake on his final Q3 lap in qualifying, running wide at Turn 2, thus abandoning the lap. As others improved, he dropped to fifth on the grid, with team-mate Sebastian Vettel taking pole position.
In a quiet race, the 2007 world champion dropped behind Daniel Ricciardo at the start, and was unable to make the position back, finishing in sixth behind Lewis Hamilton.
“[The] mistake in qualifying did not put ourselves in a good position,” he explained. “Overtaking was very difficult here; I tried to get ahead of Hamilton after my pitstop, but it did not work out. It was even difficult to get close to him to open the DRS.
“It was a surprise, because on this track you would expect to see overtaking and fights. Instead it was a similar story to two weeks ago in Monaco.”
As the cars ahead of Räikkönen came into the pit, the Ferrari driver stayed out longer on his ultrasoft tyres, in an attempt to try something different, to no avail.
“We decided to stay out a little bit longer on our first set of tyres,” he said. “I don’t think that cost us any position: it was our only option to try something different.”
The race marked Räikkönen’s 100th grand prix start since his last win, the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. After seven rounds of the ’18 season, Räikkönen has scored 68 points and is in fifth place in the drivers’ standings.
Team-mate Vettel tops the standings with 121 points, just one ahead of Hamilton, while the Ferrari team are second in the constructors’ on 189 points, 17 behind the reigning champions, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport on 206.
