Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Raikkonen expects to avoid Bottas

Kimi Raikkonen insists there is no ill feeling between himself and Valtteri Bottas regarding their collisions this season but admits they will try and avoid each other in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Bottas split the two Ferraris in qualifying on Saturday but the pair will not start alongside each other due to a three-place grid penalty for the Williams driver as a result of a red flag infringement during Friday practice.

Raikkonen and Bottas came together in the Russian Grand Prix and again in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, but when asked if he is glad to not be starting next to his fellow Finn Raikkonen insists there is no issue between the two.

"There’s never been any discussions," Raikkonen said. "You guys [the media] try to make it a big story out of it because we came together twice. It could have happened with any other driver, so it’s not like there are problems; there are no issues.

"It was not good for either of us in those two occasions but it’s part of racing. I’m sure we’ll try to stay more off each other’s way."

Looking at the gap to Mercedes in Brazil, Raikkonen says he is not concerned the world champions have extended their performance advantage over Ferrari.

"Every circuit is different, in some circuits the gap has been smaller, in others it’s bigger. I don’t know if they’ve done something, I haven’t compared the data. It is what it is today and we’ll try to fight as hard as we can in these last two races. Next year it’s a different story."

REPORT: Rosberg takes fifth pole in a row by 0.078s

AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix - qualifying

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.