Räikkönen: Patience finally rewarded?

Kimi Räikkönen seems to be approaching this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with optimism. If the 2008 world champion is still struggling to compete against Fernando Alonso who came close to the podium in Singapore while the Finn had to settle for eighth place, the latter noted positive elements allowing him to claim better results in qualifying.

Iceman has been struggling since the start of the year in the flying lap exercise since he has missed Q3 seven times in 14 starts, or one weekend out of two. But the Finn noted progress on the Singapore street circuit where he could have claimed a better position on the grid than seventh if a software problem had not disrupted him. “We finally found in Singapore the speed necessary to put in a competitive fast lap in qualifying because the car behaved as I expected. It's a shame that we weren't able to enjoy it more because of this slight problem during the last flying lap. We couldn't do much in the race because I was stuck in traffic and couldn't exploit my potential. But I was finally able to have a good feeling behind the wheel, which I had been waiting for for a long time this year. »

Kimi Räikkönen admits that the behavior of the Ferrari F14 T was frustrating during the first part of the season. If his teammate Fernando Alonso is also in difficulty with his mount, the Spaniard has almost triple the points with 133 units compared to 44 for the Scandinavian. “There are still things to improve on the package, but I feel like I can ride the way I want and it has become easier compared to what I had until now. Every turn was like a guessing game, but now I can feel confident behind the wheel and drive the way I want. It makes things much easier and it quickly shows on the times. »

The Finn will have a new opportunity to take advantage of this progress this weekend at Suzuka where he won in 2005 with McLaren and where he remains on a fifth place signed last year with Lotus F1 team.