Kimi Räikkönen – "This is where the points are won"


A battling performance from Kimi during yesterday’s qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix saw the Finn narrowly miss out on the pole position shoot-out despite carrying a mechanical issue for most of the session. Here, the 2007 World Champion tells us his expectations for the race…

Kimi, P12 was not what you would have hoped for from qualifying; tell us about it from your perspective…

We had a hydraulic issue which meant the diff wasn’t working the way it should do. It started in Q1 and the rest of the session was quite difficult from there. The car actually felt ok, but it was tricky to push hard for a fast time. Of course it’s disappointing and we definitely lost a bit of time because of it, but these things happen and we’re confident it will be fine for the race.

How are the super soft tyres around here, and do you think they will play a big part in the result?

To be honest, there’s nothing wrong with the tyres; it’s just about getting them working in the right window and making them last so you can run as quick as possible for as long as possible. The tyres play their part, but you need a good car in very area if you want to be fighting at the front. Our car has looked good on long runs all season and degradation is quite low here, so I don’t think there are any big worries there.

You came through from P11 to take P2 in Bahrain; are you confident of repeating that performance here in Canada?

You can never know these things until you reach the chequered flag. We’ve been stronger in the race than in qualifying and testing at every circuit this year, so fingers crossed for a good result. It’s meant to be a bit warmer again today and our car generally goes better in hot conditions. This is where the points are won, not in practice or qualifying. We’ll try to get a good start, avoid any problems in the first few corners and see where we go from there.

Kimi Brasil 2015. Tecnologia do Blogger.