Since his return to Ferrari last year, Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen had not yet stood on a Formula 1 podium. His last podium was with the Lotus team in 2013 at the Korean Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
A wait too long for the Finn who, despite his legendary composure, seemed rather happy to reconnect with the peaks: \u00ab After a difficult year and a rather unlucky start to the season, it’s really great to be back on the podium. I have somewhat mixed feelings; it’s nice to be back, but we want to be on top. \u00bb<\/p>\n
The 2007 world champion looks back on his race and particularly on his offset strategy in terms of tires compared to the Mercedes: \u00ab The start was really good, I managed to pass Nico but eventually lost the position and quite a bit of time afterward. The strategy was perfect, we pitted at the right time with the right tire choices. I was quite happy with the car and we maintained good speed throughout the entire race. \u00bb<\/p>\n
It was a close call for R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen to also catch up with Lewis Hamilton: In the last laps, I was getting closer and closer to Hamilton, I could see him, but the race was over, and we would have needed a few more laps to try something.<\/p>\n
According to the Finn, the Mercedes drivers are still well ahead of the competition, but Ferrari could snatch a few victories depending on the circumstances: \u00ab I think we are still a bit behind the Mercedes. But on certain circuits and under certain conditions, we can be competitive, especially in races. \u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen was able to beat a Mercedes this Sunday in Sakhir. For the Ferrari driver, it was the strategy implemented with his team that allowed him to achieve this good result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":39448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[364,777,1404],"class_list":["post-13450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-ferrari","tag-raikkonen","tag-sakhir"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n