Kimi Raikkonen says ‘you have to be a bit guessing’ when gauging the end of a Virtual Safety Car, with the Ferrari ace losing out to Max Verstappen at the first re-start in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Having emerged unscathed from the first corner incident that involved his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, the Finn was running behind Sergio Perez with the Red Bull ace in his tow under the first of two VSC periods in Sepang.
The VSC was introduced in F1 last year in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, with the procedure supposed to freeze gaps. However, it has been questioned several times since then, with several drivers complaining that it allows rivals to close in.
“You have to be very positive on the lap time behind the VSC, I was very close to Perez and you have to be a bit guessing when the VSC is going to go off,” Raikkonen said. “You know it’s about ten seconds after the warning, but either he timed it perfectly or got a bit lucky.
“He had the spin to pass me and I don’t know if we could have done it better. I don’t think it changed an awful lot our race, but it was not ideal. We have to see and learn about those things.”
Following the VSC mishap, Raikkonen had managed to hoist himself up to third when a recovering Nico Rosberg muscled his way past the 2007 world champion, making contact with the Ferrari along the way.
The Mercedes driver was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision but could ultimately open a sufficient gap over Raikkonen to salvage a podium finish.
“I kind of expected [Nico] would try something because he had a bit of a funny line going into Turn One,” remembered the Finn. “In Turn Two I was turning in and suddenly saw a flash in the mirrors, had to run right otherwise maybe we both finish the race there.
“I got some damage on the floor and that obviously didn’t help, he got penalised but that didn’t change the end result. We kept trying and unfortunately it wasn’t better than that. We would be much happier to be fighting at the front but this is what we’ve got today.”
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