Kimi Räikkönen reflected on what he felt was a normal day for him and Scuderia Ferrari, with the Finn’s running at the Suzuka International Racing Course seeing him ending fourth and fifth across the two practice sessions.
Räikkönen concluded the opening session of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend with a best time of 1:29.627, which was 0.936 seconds off the best time set by Lewis Hamilton, but 0.058 seconds clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
The afternoon session saw him set a time of 1:29.498, falling to 1.281 seconds away from the outright pace, again set by Hamilton, while Vettel was just over four-tenths of a second faster in third, the duo split by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
Räikkönen says there is plenty of work to do to be competitive this weekend, particularly against the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport duo of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas who ended first and second in both sessions, but with the weather for Saturday’s running looking uncertain, the Finn is unsure to what will happen throughout practice and Qualifying.
“This has been a normal Friday, both in terms of the things we tried and of engine usage,” said Räikkönen. “We have been focusing on trying to get the best set-up for the car and towards the end of the session it felt better to drive, but for sure we have some work to do before tomorrow.
“I don’t know if it will be raining or not during P3 and Qualifying, we’ll have to see what the weather brings.”
