BAHRAIN GP – RACE RESULTS – KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE

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Report: It always looked like being a difficult race and so it proved for Ferrari in Bahrain. Fernando Alonso brought his F14 T home in ninth place, with Kimi Raikkonen right behind him. This circuit was expected to be the least suitable for the Maranello car in its current state of development. Lewis Hamilton won, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, with third place going to the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Alonso and Raikkonen had to fight tooth and nail to stay in the points zone, which was the best they could do.

Scuderia Ferrari is fifth in the Constructors’ championship with, Alonso fourth in the Drivers’ and Kimi twelfth. The next round is in China in two weeks time, by when Ferrari will be looking to move forward in terms of performance as it strives for better results.

Final Standings:

Pos Driver                Team                      Time/Gap
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                  1h38m42.743
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                  +1.085s
 3. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes      +24.067s
 4. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault          +24.489s
 5. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes      +28.654s
 6. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault          +29.879s
 7. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes
 8. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes
09. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
10. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari
11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault
12. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault
13. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari
14. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault
15. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault
16. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari
17. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes

Retirements

    Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes        40 laps
    Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          39 laps
    Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault        33 laps
    Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault      18 laps
    Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari          17 laps

Drivers' standings:

 1. Nico Rosberg       61  
 2. Lewis Hamilton     50  
 3. Nico Hulkenberg    28  
 4. Fernando Alonso    26  
 5. Jenson Button      23  
 6. Sebastian Vettel   23  
 7. Kevin Magnussen    20  
 8. Valtteri Bottas    18  
 9. Sergio Perez       16  
10. Daniel Ricciardo   12  
11. Felipe Massa       12  
12. Kimi Raikkonen     7  
13. Jean-Eric Vergne   4  
14. Daniil Kvyat       3  
                     
Constructors' standings

 1. Mercedes               111  
 2. Force India-Mercedes   44  
 3. McLaren-Mercedes       43  
 4. Red Bull-Renault       35  
 5. Ferrari                33  
 6. Williams-Mercedes      30  
 7. Toro Rosso-Renault     7

QUOTES

Kimi Raikkonen: “I am very disappointed with today’s result, because after how qualifying went, I expected to do better. I didn’t get a good start and immediately lost some places. On the first lap, I was hit by Magnussen, luckily without it doing any damage, but trying to move up the order at this point was very difficult, because the lack of aero downforce and speed on the straight meant overtaking was complicated. We knew this track was less suited to the characteristics of our car than the first two and that the Mercedes would be very quick. Overall, the handling of our car has generally improved compared to the first races and this makes me confident for the upcoming ones. We can expect a lot of work to do and we will make the most of the test days to try and improve already in time for the next race in China.”

Pat Fry: “Today, we could not have asked more of our car and drivers, because here, our most limiting factor was a lack of top speed. That meant we had to run a defensive race and even if in the middle sector, the one with the most corners, the F14 T was competitive, it was not enough to allow Fernando and Kimi to attack our rivals. In Maranello, we are working on solutions to ensure better power delivery and better driveability. We are also trying to improve the efficiency of the car on the aerodynamic front. The data we acquired in today’s race will provide a baseline for the major checking programme we have planned for the test, right here at Sakhir on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Raikkonen – rivals in different class: “The Mercedes cars seemed to be able to pass us very easily on the straightlines. One Force India got me on the exit of corner eight and it was like a different class. I was surprised. He came out of the pitlane but I had only done a few laps on the tyres. I went OK out of the corner and he just came inside of me and went past; I had no answer. And the next corner he had massive traction also, so it’s not just the horsepower.”

VIDEO

Post-race interview with Kimi, SkySportsF1

Bahrain GP Team Radio Transcript

Kimi Raikkonen: Magnussen hit me again!

Antonio Spagnolo: How are the tyres?

Kimi Raikkonen: Yeah my left-front is flat-spotted and it’s vibrating quite heavily. And I get some understeer in the right-hand corners.

Antonio Spagnolo: To go to the end we need 20 gram less every lap. Twenty less every lap.

Angry Raikkonen on the radio, not sure why: “Either you’re saying yes or not! I don’t always understand you.” (via @f1timingapp) #F1

— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) April 6, 2014

The above message wasn’t played on the main world feed broadcast or on the pit radio channel, which is where the messages above are from. It was played on the official F1 app.