Second place in Valencia marked Kimi Räikkönen’s second podium finish of his F1 comeback season. However, just like in Bahrain two months ago, the Finn was disappointed to have missed out on the top spot – this time to Fernando Alonso.
Prior to the European Grand Prix, many had tipped the nimble E20 – which excels in hot conditions – to deliver the eighth different winner in as many races this year.
“Second place is okay but the win is what I really wanted,” said the 2007 World Champion, who also finished on the rostrum in the 2009 Valencia race. “We didn’t quite have the pace for it today. I got a good start but I was blocked by Pastor (Maldonado) at the first right-hander and lost quite a few places which put me a bit behind.
“We made a good recovery from that position and had quite a hard fight with a few people - overtaking and being overtaken. I couldn’t get the tyres up to temperature quickly enough after the Safety Car and I made a small mistake on the restart lap, too. I was able to fight back as we had good race pace again. Today was close but the race win was just out of reach.”
The Espoo man now sits just two points behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg for a top five position in the Drivers’ Championship, having notched up a total of 73 points so far.
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Kimi Räikkönen
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:44:16.649 |
| 2. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +6.421 |
| 3. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | +12.639 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +13.628 |
| 5. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | +19.993 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +21.176 |
| 7. | P. di Resta | Force India | +22.866 |
| 8. | J. Button | McLaren | +24.653 |
| 9. | S. Perez | Sauber | +27.777 |
| 10. | B. Senna | Williams | +35.961 |
| Full results | |||
| Kimi Räikkönen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Kimi Räikkönen photos | |||
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