Kimi Raikkonen thinks his car was capable of a podium finish in 2012 Indian GP – Formula 1 news
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen thinks his car was capable enough to secure a podium finish in the 2012 Indian Grand Prix held at Buddh International Circuit last weekend but insisted that he couldn’t pass Felipe Massa of Ferrari.
Raikkonen struggled a little bit in the qualifying of the previous race and could only secure seventh grid slot. Even though, he showed an impressive pace in the race and seemed strong behind the wheel of his updated car, however, he could not match the
straight-line speed of Massa due to which he failed to improve his position and ended at 7th place in the charts ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India.
Though, he said that they were hoping to secure a podium finish with their upgraded car, but he asserted that they are not feeling disappointed and are positively looking forward to attain competitive results in the remainder of the season.
“We really thought that the car, with its lap times, had the chance of a podium,” Raikkonen said. “But when you are stuck behind and you can't get past, it's useless. But we made a mistake yesterday and we paid for it today in the race. Hopefully at the
next race we can use the pace that we have and put ourselves in a good place to start the race.”
The Finnish driver has performed impressively well in the season until now. At present, he is standing at third place in the drivers’ championship with 173 points. Besides, he is ahead of Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing and is behind his main rival, Fernando
Alonso of Ferrari.
Although, he said that it is almost impossible for him to catch Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who is currently leading the drivers’ standings with 240 points. Nonetheless, he is still aiming to attain better results in the remaining three races of the ongoing
season so as to secure a good position in this year’s championship.
“I think we knew already for quite a few races before that unless they made some big mistakes they had too much speed,” he added.
Tags: