Kimi Raikkonen says he feels like misfortune seems to keep following his Ferrari team after both he and Sebastian Vettel suffered late tyre failures.
Raikkonen had been running in second for the majority of the race but suffered a deflation of his left front tyre with only a handful of laps remaining, forcing to pit and dropping him behind Valtteri Bottas to third.
Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel then suffered an almost identical but more severe problem on the very next lap, relegating the championship leader down to seventh.
“Unfortunately it seems to be that unlucky situations keep following us,” says Raikkonen. “For whatever reason the front-left tyre didn’t really ‘explode’ but the canvas came off the tyre.
“Luckily I could get back quite fast and the car stayed in one piece. Unfortunately Sebastian had more or less the same problem a lap later. Not happy but better than nothing.”
Despite the unscheduled extra pit stop, Raikkonen was able to hang on to a podium position. The Ferrari driver admits that Mercedes may have had the advantage over them this weekend.
“I think we got more or less the most out of the car in the race,” says Raikkonen. “They [Mercedes] were just a bit faster today. I was struggling a little bit at some points to go faster.”
2017 British Grand Prix
- 2017 British Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Dominant Hamilton wins Driver of the Weekend
- British GP rates below its average despite late-race drama
- 2017 British Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2017 British Grand Prix Star Performers
HUHHII (@huhhii)
16th July 2017, 15:33
Strong showing by Kimi in the nick of time when contract negotiations are on the way.
Just hoping for trouble-free weekend in Hungary and the contract extension is a certainty. It’s just that “trouble-free weekend” and “Kimi Räikkönen” don’t seem to fit into same sentence.
Bv
16th July 2017, 15:52
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/alonso-driving-a-ferrari-in-2018
Nick (@npf1)
16th July 2017, 16:08
Maybe he can join former team mate Fisichella in a 488.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
16th July 2017, 17:00
Snpf1 Star Mild better sponsor it :p
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
16th July 2017, 17:01
@npf1
STG
16th July 2017, 16:37
kimi is the best.
Fukobayashi (@)
17th July 2017, 14:21
lol
Philip (@philipgb)
16th July 2017, 17:30
It’s been pretty fair this season for bad luck. Bottas blew an engine, Hamilton with the head rest, Ricciardo and Verstappen are definitely on the bad end of this. And poor Palmer, today’s retirement won’t help his championship challenge!