Kimi Raikkonen says recovering from his sluggish getaway in the Bahrain Grand Prix was “difficult”, though the Ferrari driver leaves Sakhir with an eighth podium at the Middle Eastern venue.
Having qualified P4, Raikkonen actually started third after team-mate Sebastian Vettel retired with an engine issue on the formation lap. Despite the free road ahead of him, the Finn was overhauled by the two fast-starting Williams and emerged from the first lap in fifth.
Although Raikkonen managed to fight his way back to second position and cut the gap to race leader Nico Rosberg to 4.5 seconds at some point, the 2007 world champion eventually crossed the line 10 seconds behind the winning Mercedes.
“Obviously P2 is not too bad,” Raikkonen said. “I had a bad start but after a few laps we went straight behind Nico. It was difficult to recover but we did what we could. We had pretty good speed, not enough to win but we take second today and will try to improve from that.”
Raikkonen now has eight podiums – but no victory – out of 11 Bahrain Grand Prix starts. Asked about his unusual record, the 36-year-old was his unflappable self in the explanation.
“I don’t think there is any special thing that we do. It just seems to be happening here while there are other circuits where we seem to always have bad luck.”
Having had to retire with a turbo failure in Australia, the Finn admits his first podium of the season has a bittersweet taste in the wake of Ferrari’s second DNF in a row.
“I’ll take it but as we know it was unfortunate for the team with the other car having an issue. There is some work to be done.”
Raikkonen is now fourth in the standings, tied with Haas’ Romain Grosjean on 18 points.
RACE REPORT: Rosberg beats Raikkonen to win in Bahrain
AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix
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