Kimi Räikkönen finished down in sixteenth in last weekends Hungarian Grand Prix, although he felt a making up a few more places was a possibility had it not been for a early penalty for being out of position at the start.
The Finn and Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi were at the back of the field for the start, but a slippery track saw Räikkönen miss his grid spot, and unfortunately for him, there was not any time for him to reverse into position as the start procedure was activated.
The veteran racer was handed a five-second time penalty for the offence, and also acquired a penalty point on his Superlicence.
The penalty put paid to Räikkönen’s chances of a first points score of the season, although he did set one record at the Hungaroring, with the Finn now having seen the chequered flag on two hundred and forty-six occasions, the most of any driver in Formula 1 history.
Räikkönen felt that the team would have been in contention for a good result had they not qualified so badly on the Saturday, so the key going forward is to work on their one-lap pace.
“It wasn’t a very busy race for me,” said Räikkönen. “Unfortunately, starting where we did meant we had a very difficult job ahead of us: we did what we could but it wasn’t enough for points.
“Our pace wasn’t too bad, I made up a few places at the start but the penalty put me back at the bottom. The grid was a bit slippery, I went a bit too long into the box and I didn’t have the time to reverse; we could have been a few more places up so it’s a bit of a shame.
“We have a lot of work to do to improve our qualifying, but we can be positive about our performance on Sundays.”
