Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Supersoft improvement needed from Ferrari - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari needs to improve its performance on the supersoft tyre to close on Mercedes in Abu Dhabi.

Having been third quickest in FP1, Raikkonen was seventh fastest in the evening session as Force India and Red Bull both showed the pace to challenge Ferrari. While relatively pleased with his day's work, Raikkonen says there is more to come on the supersoft tyre in both qualifying and race trim.

"I think it was a normal Friday," Raikkonen said. "Things could have been a bit better on a single lap, but overall it was not too bad. We have some difficulties with the supersoft tyre in the long runs, but it was OK. Everything is working.

"The Mercedes seem to be very fast and other teams are very quick too. We try to do the best we can and hopefully we’ll be somewhere up there in qualifying.

"I think [Friday] was OK but there are always things we can improve. It’s only Friday, but our day was pretty OK, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow."

Having won in Abu Dhabi in 2012, when asked what it is he likes about the Yas Marina Circuit, Raikkonen replied: "I don’t think I like this track so much. It’s a different track, it’s a nice place to finish the season, so let’s hope we can finish it well."

AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix FP2

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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.