“Not much to lose” says Kimi Raikkonen who will start from the front row of the grid for Sunday’s F1 US Grand Prix.
Qualifying in third on the grid, Raikkonen was promoted to his front row grid slot after teammate Sebastian Vettel had his three grid penalty for a misdemeanor earlier in the weekend applied.
How Ferrari play the strategy on Sunday will be interesting to see, especially as they have yet to impose team-orders in the season. Obviously, the championship battle requires Vettel to finish in the top two, should Hamilton win, but with Raikkonen heading out of Ferrari at the end of the season, he may not be easily persuaded to step aside.
“It’s been a pretty positive day and for sure I think we got pretty close (to Mercedes),” said Raikkonen. “It’s far from ideal but I felt good with the car. We’ll try tomorrow, it’s going to be a long race and nobody really knows how the tires will survive because of yesterday’s rain so it will be interesting.”
When reminded that he will be starting on the softest tire, the ultra-soft, while those around him are on the slightly harder super-soft option Raikkonen said, “Yeah, and not much to lose so we will try to make a good start, go from there and see what we can do but I think it should be ok.”
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