Raikkonen wondered 'what the others were doing' on opening lap
Kimi Raikkonen was on fire in the early stages of the Portugal GP, the Alfa Romeo driver gaining an incredible 10 places on the opening lap, his amazing progress leading the Finn to wonder "what the others were doing".
From 16th on the grid, the Iceman made the most of his soft tyres and the commotion that unfolded at the start. He eventually climbed as high as fifth before succumbing to the midfield rivals after seven laps.
"I don’t think the start itself was very good – I lost a place – but then after that honestly I thought at one point ‘what are the others doing?’" he said.
Unfortunately, a messy pitstop after 10 laps sent Raikkonen to the back of the field from where he recovered to finish just outside the points in P11.
"I had a good first and then second lap, the speed was decent in the car most of the race, then we had a little bit of difficulties in the pit stop and in the end I lost 10th place to Vettel with old tyres," he said.
"We got nothing out of it, so that’s a shame. We need more speed, then everything will become a little bit easier."
Looking ahead to next weekend's Emilia Romagna GP at Imola, Raikkonen will be targeting a higher launch off the grid and hopefully a top-ten finish at a venue where the 41-year-old has raced in the past, contrary to all of his current colleagues .
"We’ll see how it is, it has to be better than here," he added.
"In the race it was not too bad, but when you start where we start [down the grid] you need to take some chances more. It’s not ideal. But unfortunately we are lacking a little bit of speed."
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