Kimi Räikkönen found that his Alfa Romeo Racing car was “lacking a bit of straight line speed” during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Despite this, he was pleased to cross over the finish line to score some much needed points for the team.
The Finn qualified just outside the top ten alongside his team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi and was fighting at the lower end of the points for the majority of the Grand Prix. His cause was helped when his Italian team-mate had spun into the gravel to bring out the Safety Car.
That brought the field back together and after the collision between Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, along with Lando Norris having to make a second pit stop, Räikkönen found himself in ninth before overtaking Alexander Albon in the closing stages to come away with four points from Silverstone.
“Eighth is a positive result. My car was handling quite nicely around the corners today, but we were lacking a bit of straight line speed,” Räikkönen said.
“At the end I was fighting to keep the Toro Rosso of Kvyat behind by trying to stay in the DRS window of the car in front of me. It wasn’t the easiest weekend but we will happily take the points.”
The thirty-nine year old’s result moves him up to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship on twenty-five points. Alfa Romeo’s tally keeps them in sixth in the Constuctors battle, thirteen points behind Renault F1 Team and seven ahead of Racing Point F1 Team and Toro Rosso Honda.