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F1 Singapore GP: Raikkonen: We could have gone to the end, but…

Kimi Raikkonen says he is sure he could have reached the end of the Singapore Grand Prix on his soft tyres without any problems but admits there was no guarantee he would have been able to hold onto third place either way.

Getting a good start from fifth, Raikkonen ran fourth initially and chipped away at the margin to Lewis Hamilton ahead of him on the second stint before overtaking for third when the defending champion out-braked himself at Turn 9 on lap 32.

With Hamilton unable to respond to the Ferrari on equal terms, Mercedes rolled the dice by bringing its driver in for a third time to put him on super-soft tyres. Forcing Ferrari to react, Raikkonen pitted on the next lap for ultra-soft tyres but Hamilton would get the jump on him as he exited the pit lane.

Leaving him in a fourth place he would hold to the chequered flag, though Raikkonen is certain he would have made it to the end without an issue, he isn't convinced it would have changed the result.

"We have to go through all the data from the race to see what could we have done better," he said. "They managed to get in front of us again and we lost the place and there wasn't much more we could have done at that point. We have to go through the data, like I said, and see what we could have done better.

"For sure we could have got to the end on those tyres. If they he would have been able to catch us and pass, that I don't know. Like I said, we'll be going through all the things and see what we could have done better. I think there were a few things we could have done but afterwards it's always very easy to say."

Despite the outcome, Raikkonen was encouraged with the pace relative to Mercedes and Red Bull, even if Ferrari has slipped further adrift of the latter in the fight for second overall.

"I think we weren't so far from the Red Bull yesterday or Lewis. I think we had pretty good speed but for most of the race we were stuck behind them. I managed to get past Lewis when he made a mistake in Turn Seven. We had a good fight for a few corners and I passed him. Unfortunately they got us back, but we did what we could.

"We did our own race and we can be quite happy. Obviously we gained one place but that's not what we are looking to achieve. We try to be in a position to win races, so we need to make the car go faster. Third or fourth is not exactly what we want." 

Zdroj: crash.net