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F1 | US GP | Raikkonen: ''Tyre life wasn’t there anymore'' after contact with Alonso damaged his floor on the left-hand side

It was so near but yet so far to a point for Kimi Raikkonen at COTA on Sunday afternoon.

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F1 | US GP | Raikkonen: ''Tyre life wasn’t there anymore'' after contact with Alonso damaged his floor on the left-hand side
Fuente imagen: MotorLat

It was another hugely frustrating race for Kimi Raikkonen and Alfa Romeo as they narrowly missed out on grabbing a point again.  

As has been the case throughout the season, the 2007 World Champion had a great first place, moving up from 15th to 12th. 

After eventually passing Giovinazzi in the second stint, it looked like he was heading for a point, but a spin late in the race with Sebastian Vettel catching him quickly saw him cross the line in P13. 

Raikkonen had earlier made contact with Alonso on lap 16 and believes that was the reason he spun towards the end as his tyres completely fell away thanks to floor damage on the left-hand side. 

''I had to push hard and my tyres were going away a bit and [the car] got away. [I] struggled the last few laps with the rears,'' he said. 

''The car was pretty decent at the start of the race. Then with Alonso we had a small contact and lost a part of the floor on the left-hand side. 

''I don’t think it had a huge effect on the pure balance of the car, but the tyre life wasn’t there anymore.  

''We are usually good [on that] but today I think that it might be the reason why it wasn’t like we expected.''

Asked if he felt Alonso pushed him off the track, the 21-time Grand Prix winner agreed. He believes even bigger damage would have been the result if he tried to hold the line on the outside of T1. 

''Yeah... I kind of turned and then touched,'' he said. 

''If I just kept the line that I was going it would have probably been a bigger touch and crash. I’m sure he had a big space on the inside,'' the Finn concluded.  

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