F1 | Imola GP | Raikkonen: ''We were in the right place to gain from DNFs''
The Finn profited from errors and retirements in front to collect two points and the driver of the day award at Imola.
Kimi Raikkonen scored points for the second time in 2020 as he finished 9th at Imola, just like he did at Mugello. It moved him back ahead of Giovinazzi in the Drivers’ Championship.
The Finn took full advantage of the retirements of Verstappen, Russell, and Gasly. As well as that, a bad stop for Vettel and a spin for Albon allowed him to finish in the points.
Raikkonen ran a mammoth first stint on the medium tyres, finally pitting on lap 48. As he explained after the race, that was the plan.
The 2007 World Champion believed he could have kept going and taken advantage of a Safety Car that came out two laps later for Verstappen’s incident.
‘’I mean that was the plan in the first place. I think in the end we ran out of patience and should have stayed [out] because we had not much to lose and only to gain if there was a Safety Car. Obviously then two laps later there was one. I don’t know how much it would have made a difference in the end.
‘’Nevertheless, both cars in the points. Lucky or not, some cars retired but we were in the right place to gain from them. We’ll take it.’’
- #ImolaGP: First double-points finish.
— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) November 1, 2020
- Us: pic.twitter.com/Xp211krNUo
Asked if he thinks Alfa can fight for points on a regular basis as the car has slightly improved throughout the course of the season, the Finn seemed unsure.
As Raikkonen also explained, Alfa’s biggest weakness is qualifying as both cars regularly getting knocked out in Q1, which leaves them a mountain to climb on Sunday afternoons.
‘’I don’t know [if we can fight for regular points-scoring finishes]. It depends on so many different things. It’s [the car] not too bad in the race.
‘’I’m sure in certain ways we’re still lacking speed and we have to push so hard in some races where it’s limited [on] tyre life, we have to ruin the tyres to keep up with the others. There’s a lot of small things that are still not ideal.
‘’We’ll keep working. We need to qualify higher for it to be easier in the race.’’
From P18 at the start to P9 at the 🏁
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 1, 2020
You voted for Kimi as your Driver Of The Day at Imola! 🏆😎#ImolaGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/ZG2LebNNxe
