Maranello, 10 November – Formula One flies off to South America for the penultimate round of the championship, at Brazil’s Interlagos circuit. The Sao Paulo track is an unusual one, the shortest on the calendar after Monaco and Mexico, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less enthralling in the eyes of the drivers. Speaking after joining the rest of Scuderia Ferrari at last weekend’s Finali Mondiali event in Mugello, Kimi Raikkonen has special memories of Brazil, as it was there that he secured his world championship title back in 2007.
“What I remember most about that weekend is the determination with which the team set about securing the goal it had set itself going into the event, namely winning the championship,” he told ferrari.com. “I like this track, even though it’s very short, because if you tackle it properly, it’s great fun to drive. Last year, the track was resurfaced and the grip level was high, something drivers always like as it means you can be more aggressive. The fact it’s a short track doesn’t mean it’s easy to set up the car. There are many factors to take into consideration, not least of which is the weather.”
quote Brazilian Grand Prix - “No clear picture yet”
Kimi baffled by “messy” day
Kimi Raikkonen: “In general, the two sessions were quite confusing: a lot of things happened and I don’t think we have got a clear picture. In the morning we spent the first half an hour to do some aero testing, then we had one run followed by a small issue with the set up and I spun off. In the afternoon a lot of things kept happening, always when we went out. We had some laptimes but it was quite messy in all ways. I haven’t seen what the others did in the long run, our race pace felt ok but we’re still struggling a bit. Now we have to look at what we did today and then try to fix certain issues for tomorrow. For sure we have some work to do.”
Fernando had an engine failure in Q1. So he took a chair and enjoyed the sun. So one guy had the idea to create the hashtag #PlacesAlonsoWouldRatherBe Some of this pictures are hilarous
Kimis thoughts after quali- and one sentence to Paris
quoteKimi only rues last corners offline
Kimi Raikkonen: “I don’t think it’s ever going to be easy but you know, today it was not too bad. I went sideways in the last lap in turn 11 and this also affected the run into the last corner. So the end of my lap was not ideal and I lost time, but apart from that the car has been working well, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow, trying to make a good start and moving on from there. The balance of the car was ok, it has been behaving pretty well, although obviously not fast enough for beating the Mercedes. For sure we could have been a bit higher up the time chart, but I think it was not too bad. I’ll start from fourth anyway tomorrow and maybe the weather will be different from today. I heard about Paris this morning, it’s very sad. Unfortunately, in the world these odd things seem to happen.”