Despite conditions that were far from ideal and constantly changing, Scuderia Ferrari‘s Kimi Räikkönen believes he got the best result possible in today’s German Grand Prix.
The Finn qualified third and finished third at the Hockenheimring behind the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen’s team-mate, home favourite Sebastian Vettel, crashed out from the lead of the race.
Rain threatened to disrupt the race, but only a small amount materialised during the Grand Prix. Räikkönen commented that the rain that did fall on the track made conditions particularly challenging, with grip completely disappearing in certain corners.
“It was pretty difficult out there today,” he commented.
“Surprisingly, in some corners, there was decent grip and in some others, there was none at all; we could feel the rain especially in Turns 2 and 6. It was hard to tell when to slow down and where the grip was.
“Obviously, you had to make your decision before the braking zone, knowing that if it happens to be wetter than you expected, there’s not much you can do. It was not easy but we tried to make the best calls and I think we got it right.
“The most tricky moments were before the safety car came in; it felt like it was raining a lot, somehow we had some decent grip and suddenly quite bad grip.”
Räikkönen lost out on a shot at holding onto second place when he encountered a large group of cars needing to be lapped. A slightly hairy moment with Haas F1 Team‘s Kevin Magnussen pushed him wide and gave Bottas the opportunity to pounce and take the spot away from him. Nevertheless, the result leaves him firmly in third place in the Driver’s Championship, forty points off Vettel in second.
“At one point I had a moment with some back-markers and unfortunately, I lost second place. In many ways, it could have been better today, but this is what we got. I think that we made the most of it, considering the situation.”
