Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in P5 in Singapore, in his starting position. Ferrari went on diverse strategies with its drivers, pulling an early switch to US with Vettel and a late pit-stop on Softs for Kimi. The Finn did not manage to prevail on Valtteri Bottas, who finished ahead of him.

Kimi believes the nature of the track did not foster his recovery at all. Despite multiple attempts to induce Bottas’ mistakes, Raikkonen did not succeed at pressuring him enough to get ahead. “I was just following and taking care of the tyres, we had decent speed, car was good but it was too hard to overtake. We got close enough but we started losing downforce, probably we needed 10 more laps. We both struggled on these tyres.” said Raikkonen.

Moreover, the Ferrari driver reiterates that the outcome of the race, which only featured one Safety Car, was already decided, since qualifying plays too big of a role in determining the final results.

“The leaders can dictate the speed and take care of the tyres. We stayed out hoping for the SC, which didn’t happen. We were purely hoping for it to get some help”.

“Tyre management for me was not too bad, Bottas was in front of me, I think he was struggling more. I saw he was struggling with his right front tyre but it didn’t slow him down enough. There were some mistakes and lock-ups from him, but we needed something a little bit bigger to get the run on him.”

“It was a bit boring but that is what happens in this kind of races.” he added.

Raikkonen said he is looking forward to Russia, albeit it is going to be close. Whoever puts together the best qualifying, will have a fair advantage, as it is quite hard to overtake at Sochi as well.