Räikkönen's ordeal in Baku

Kimi Räikkönen had a disastrous race at the Azerbaijan GP in Baku. Party of 3rd rank between Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), the driver of the Team Ferrari found himself with a shredded tire after contact with his compatriot on the first lap. The 2007 world champion managed to return to the pits despite significant damage to his SF70H.

“Many things were beyond our control and we unfortunately paid a high price for them, regrets Kimi Räikkönen. I was hit at turn 2 after the start by Bottas. I don't know what he wanted to do. He braked very early but he must have realized it and released the brakes, came too fast and hit me. The back of my car hit the wall and I have significant damage. We were able to continue but the bad luck continued. Following contact between the two Force Indias, debris destroyed my rear tire. my flat bottom and rear wing were damaged. »

Kimi Räikkönen took advantage of the red flag to have his Ferrari SF70H repaired, but the Finn received a drive though for an error by his team who worked on his car in the garage when they should have done so in the pit lane. The former world champion eventually retired citing a water pressure problem.

“We had decided to retire, but the red flag allowed me to stay in the race, confirms Kimi Räikkönen. The mechanics did an incredible job in a short period of time. My car was still not perfect after all that and we decided to stop. It's not a good day when you give up twice in one race. I'm disappointed because without all these problems my car was good, but there was nothing more we could do. »

Kimi Räikkönen is now in 5th place in the Championship, 19 points behind Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), the winner of the Azerbaijan GP, ​​but Red Bull is far from Scuderia Ferrari in the Manufacturers' standings with already 89 units behind.

Discover the analysis of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2120 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.