Kimi Raikkonen "hoped for more" despite ending points drought at Mugello

Tuscan Grand Prix

Raikkonen "hoped for more" despite breaking points drought at Mugello

Better result was compromised by damage sustained on lap one

Ewan Gale

Monday 14 September 2020 15:24

Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen had "hoped for more" from a chaotic Tuscan Grand Prix despite claiming his first points of the season at Mugello.

Raikkonen sustained notable damage to the floor, as well as the front wing, from a first-lap incident at turn two which put Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen out of the race.

The Finn then struggled for pace, eventually falling a lap down and 12th of the 13 still running before the second red flag caused by Lance Stroll.

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That allowed Raikkonen, along with Haas' Romain Grosjean, to be waved around and resume at the back of the grid for the third standing start of the day.

That proved key as the Alfa Romeo was able to generate more heat into its tyres, allowing Raikkonen to launch off the line and jump ahead of both Ferraris and George Russell's Williams.

Although Raikkonen crossed the line eighth, a five-second time penalty for entering the pits beyond the commit line demoted him to ninth.

Along with the damage sustained, it left Raikkonen feeling there was more on the table for the team.

"I got penalised when I went over the white line when I entered the pit lane," he explained.

"But we still brought home two important points. That's the main thing. A shame when it is like this and we have damage straight away. We kept fighting but obviously, we always hope for a bit more.

"I think we could have finished even higher with a cleaner afternoon, but hopefully we will carry the performance to the next few events.”

Recounting the early stages of the race, Raikkonen believed the car, which has struggled at the back of the field for most of the season, would have been quick had it not been for the damage.

"It started very badly," he said. "I don't know what happened. The car that hit us in the second corner was probably surprised by how much we had to slow down in turn two and obviously I lost some parts and a front wing.

"Then there was the restart and the red flag and we had quite bad handling because we had no front end on the car and we kept adding and adding. We had a bad pit stop, then there was another red flag.

"We had decent speed when the car was somewhere where it should be but we had damage. Without it, I am sure the car would have been pretty quick."

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