Raikkonen ‘disappointed’ after poor start

2015 Italian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen says he is disappointed after a disastrous start dropped him to the back of the field at the start of the Italian Grand Prix and forced him to fight back to fifth place.

The Ferrari driver was set to be the biggest threat to Lewis Hamilton at the start, but the car appeared to fall into anti-stall as the lights went out and Raikkonen fell to last place on the run to the first corner.

“I don’t know exactly what happened at the start,” says Raikkonen. “As far as I know I did everything correctly, but the car went into the anti-stall and did not move at all. I still don’t have the right explanation about what happened, but it’s a really bad thing that cost us a lot today.

“If you start from second place and after a few seconds you’re in last position it’s not easy to see the positive side of the race: we wasted a big opportunity to fight at the front.”

Despite the poor start, Raikkonen was able to quickly fight back through the field, ultimately finishing the race in fifth after a late pass on Sergio Perez’s Force India.

“The car has been working well all weekend and also in the race the behaviour was good,” says Raikkonen.

“We made the best out of it and in the end I managed to come up fifth. Obviously I’m a bit disappointed, as we were hoping for a better result in our home race in front of all our fans, but if we think that after the first hundred metres we were last it was still a good result.”

2015 Italian Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    13 comments on “Raikkonen ‘disappointed’ after poor start”

    1. I hate that Arrivabene quickly blame Kimi saying

      he was struggling a bit, or messing a bit with his fingers to follow the procedure, but as I said without having the data I could be wrong.

      just like at Spa saying

      All the teams have an engineer from Pirelli and what do you think that engineer is doing? I mean, he’s not there to eat chewing gum, but I don’t want to open any kind of fight.

      He meant what he was saying but hiding behind something else. What a coward.

      1. I find that Arrivabene calls it like he sees it…he doesn’t sugar coat it. And I’ve also noticed when Kimi makes mistakes (of which he has made many this season in the Ferrari) he always has some excuse, never taking responsibility for it himself. And people seem to like the guy, I have no idea why. He’s always had the talent, but his attitude stinks.

    2. Chapeau to Kimi. His start scuppered Rosberg’s which ensured his teammate would get 2nd. KR playing the team game.

      1. (@uan
        Come on, there’s no way Kimi would want to give 2nd place away. The replay clearly showed that he went into anti-stall. More conspiracies.

        1. @krichelle

          What’s F1 without conspiracies? lol

          I actually don’t think Kimi messed up his start on purpose – I was being a bit over the top – but it worked out a treat for Seb.

      2. :D I don’t think he did it on purpose but you are right.

    3. I think a lot of the excitement hinged on Raikkonen upsetting Hamilton at the start, but that unfortunately didn’t happen.

    4. After his incredible stretch of points finishes, it seems that Kimi has had nothing but bad luck for the last few years. It is almost like he is under a curse. Still, it was cool to watch him slice his way back through the pack. It is a testament to the quality of F1 drivers (and maybe Good Luck) that he wasn’t hit from behind at the start.

      1. I have to say he was very lucky someone did not slam him. Couple of weeks ago people were talking that this rule change with the starting procedures might result in accidents, and it was very close today. I wonder if someone had hit him 200kph from behind, the outcome might have been a disaster, not only for Kimi but possibly others aswell. I guess he has been very unlucky recently, but at the same time one of the luckiest guys out there.

        1. I guess he is lucky when it counts.

      2. Kimi Raikkonen has always been the unluckiest guy on grid.

      3. I suppose you also consider him spinning his car in circles twice this season, once taking out Alonso in the practice, also “bad luck”. Kimi is the cause of most of his “bad luck” this season, yet he never owns it. It’s always the cars fault, the teams fault, anyone else’s fault but his own. Typical.

        1. Yes, bad luck.

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