Raikkonen ‘surprised’ with FP2 pace after understeer woes

Kimi Raikkonen admits he was surprised with his competitive pace in FP2 ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, as the Ferrari driver complained about understeer throughout the session.

Raikkonen was third fastest in the afternoon at Suzuka, finishing only three tenths adrift of Nico Rosberg after he had trailed the Mercedes driver by nearly 1.4s in FP1.

“The balance of the car was not exactly where I wanted it to be,” the 2007 world champion said. “The lap time was pretty OK but I was suffering a lot with understeer and fighting the car through the first part of the circuit. It does not feel nice.

“I was a bit surprised with the lap time. It got better in the end but it’s not where we want to be.”

Asked whether he thought Ferrari had the legs on Red Bull this weekend, Raikkonen, who also had a misfiring issue during FP2, added: “I don’t know. Like I said, the feeling was not very easy but the lap time was OK.

“If we can get a good feeling and the car working as we want, I think we can still improve a lot. We’ll see what happens.”

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