Kimi Raikkonen still after perfect lap but happy with Ferrari improvement
Former world champion out-qualifies Vettel for third on Suzuka grid
Saturday 8 October 2016 11:39, UK
Kimi Raikkonen says he has been pleasantly surprised by Ferrari's form this weekend at Suzuka.
The Finn has qualified third for Sunday's Japanese GP, beaten by the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton by just three tenths of a second.
While Ferrari's form has been much improved in Japan compared to their modest showing in Malaysia last week, Raikkonen himself is enjoying something of a resurgence.
After suffering resounding defeats to team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso over the last two seasons, the former world champion's latest defeat of Vettel comes in the wake of three successive fourth-place finishes. Raikkonen currently heads his Scuderia colleague by seven points in the standings.
"You always feel like you want to improve here and there," Raikkonen told Sky F1. "We suffered understeer here, which hurts a lot in the first sector when there are a lot of fast corners, but you always feel like if you get it perfect you can go much faster but it's not often you can say 'l got it perfect'.
"But it was good today although obviously we want to go better."
Ferrari have selected nine sets of soft tyres, more than any other team, for this weekend's event and Raikkonen believes the stability has benefited their track performance.
"It doesn't harm, that's for sure. I mean it's always more easy when you have more sets of the same compound so you can fine-tune a little bit but obviously in qualifying there's not an awful lot that you can do that is correct or not."
The Finn added: "Positively surprised how well the car's been behaving and how quick it's been. Obviously it's been a bit tricky to get the right balance but it's been pretty good and so far so good but obviously third is not exactly what we're looking for but I think we're pretty close. It was not too bad."
The F1 title run-in continues with the Japanese GP, live only on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. The race begins at 6am on Sunday. Watch the whole race weekend with a NOW TV week pass - £10.99, no contract
