F1 News, Reports and Race Results

'Hopefully it will be a three-way fight' - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen is hoping Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are all fighting for victory at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

Mercedes struggled at the circuit last season as Sebastian Vettel won from Daniel Ricciardo, but enjoyed a solid day of practice on Friday as Nico Rosberg set the pace in FP2. Having been second fastest in the later session, Raikkonen says he is encouraged by the early signs from Ferrari but is not yet convinced it will be in the mix on Saturday.

"We’ll try to do a good job tomorrow, start the day well and see what we can do in qualifying," Raikkonen said. "Of course it’s going to be difficult but we hope for the best and hopefully we can have the speed to challenge.

"Hopefully it will be a three-way fight, but today was only practice. We had a good feeling so we can definitively do something this weekend. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be fast enough tomorrow but we’ll give it our best and hopefully we can be starting the race from the front."

Like Max Verstappen - third fastest in FP2, 0.4s off Rosberg's time - Raikkonen is confident the deficit to the Mercedes can be closed on Saturday.

"It was quite an OK day. In the second practice the car was feeling good and those three tenths we, for sure, can get, pushing a bit harder here and there. But tomorrow is another day and we have to wait and see."

And Raikkonen puts the big gap between himself and team-mate Sebastian Vettel down to confidence in the car on a street circuit.

"If you have a good feeling with car that makes all the difference here. In FP1 it wasn’t so great, so the lap time is not going to be so nice when you don't trust the car. In FP2 the car felt nice and the lap time came quite easily, so far so good, but tomorrow it’s another day."

Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore

Romain Grosjean column: Drivers have a certain shelf life

Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview

TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Red Bull RB12

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Bearman gives harsh verdict on his stand-in outing

Oliver Bearman got quite the early morning wake-up call on Friday in Sao Paulo when…

17 mins ago

Red Bull still 'looking at the facts' regarding Perez's performance

While his team mate Max Verstappen thrilled the fans with a run from 17th on…

1 hour ago

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

3 hours ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

4 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

5 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

6 hours ago