Kimi Räikkönen surprised by his Ferrari SF16-H in Japan

Since the start of the Japanese weekend, Kimi Räikkönen seems to be on pace on the Suzuka track. The pilot Ferrari offered himself a fine third place this Saturday at the end of qualifying, leading the peloton of opponents from Mercedes in front of his teammate Sebastian Vettel and both Red Bull de Verstappen et Ricciardo.

Performances which, however, surprised the 2007 World Champion, who did not expect his SF16-H to be at such a level. “I don’t know [if we took a step forward against Red Bull]. Honestly, it's pretty much the same car as a week ago.

I don't think many people had much difference, but it's very... positively surprising how well the car handled and how fast it was.

Obviously it was a little difficult to find the right balance, but it ended up being quite good and everything is fine. Obviously third place isn't exactly what we're looking for, but I think we're pretty close. »

The old pilot McLaren However, he regretted chronic understeer in the first sector, but remained confident in his team ahead of the race. “It's the very small details that have to come together and we managed more or less that and the car behaved perfectly. It's a shame that Seb has a penalty, but we will try to do the same if not better tomorrow. » concluded Räikkönen.

Vettel faces a three-place grid penalty after crashing into Nico Rosberg at the start in Malaysia last weekend. The German will start from seventh position alongside the Frenchman Romain Grosjean.