Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has officially declared Kimi Raikkonen back on form following his runner-up performance in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
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For the first time in 26 races since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix the 35-year-old finished on the podium, just 3.3 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes.
Emerging from qualifying with a solid fourth position after making errors in other sessions this season, Raikkonen drove faultlessly to claim his fourth second-placed finish in Bahrain.
Kimi Raikkonen: “We came through at the end very quickly but we ran out of laps” #BahrainGP #F1atTwilight pic.twitter.com/VdPVkfeAFw
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 19, 2015
Arrivabene, who earlier this week had called on Raikkonen to raise his game, said: “I’m happy for Kimi because now I can say officially that he is back and we have two strong drivers. We told Kimi to follow our strategy.
“At a certain point he was not really convinced and we said ‘no, we stay as we are’. He was brave enough and disciplined enough to follow. It was a good result.”
The flipside for Arrivabene was that four-time champion Sebastian Vettel was off key as he made mistakes which ultimately resulted in him finishing fifth after starting the season with a trio of podiums.
One error in particular in running wide at the final corner saw him damage his front wing, forcing him into a third stop for a new nose.
Vettel: It was a shame to damage the front wing otherwise fourth was in the pocket or even third, but that is how it is sometimes. #F1
— Sebastian Vettel #5 (@sebvettelnews) April 19, 2015
Assessing Vettel’s performance, Arrivabene said: “I have to say he made two big mistakes, but we don’t forget what he has done up to now. He won one race and had two other podiums so sometimes it happens.
“We are humans, thank God, and that is the beauty of the sport. So we can continue our development and that’s it.”
McLaren’s problems continued yesterday with Jenson Button not even starting the race due to problems with his car’s engine but Fernando Alonso found something to smile about despite finishing out of the points in 11th place.
Meanwhile, definite progress from McLaren in Bahrain – @alo_oficial beating both Saubers and Hulkenberg’s Force India to take 11th
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) April 19, 2015
In his first season back at McLaren for a second spell after leaving Ferrari, who have ironically got their act together after struggling badly last season, the two-time champion Spaniard finally delivered something tangible for the struggling Honda-powered outfit.
Putting a brave face on things he said: “I have to be realistic, and I am happy with the race today. We have some serious concerns and you saw that with Jenson, who did not even start the race.
“It was important for me to finish the race and get some laps done. We have an important three weeks ahead of us now to increase the performance and reliability.
“But to finish the race more or less competitively is the best news of the day for us. The next race is in Spain, my home race and then we are going to Monaco, which is not a power circuit. So we have a chance to do something more.”
Button’s wretched weekend of car failures culminated in a pre-race electronics problem that meant the team could not fire up the car to join the grid.
McLaren racing manager Eric Boullier said: “We apologised to Jenson that we could not give him a reliable car. Hopefully, for Barcelona we will have a new back end of the car and we can forget this weekend.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner did not know if he should laugh or cry as Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line to finish sixth as his car’s Renault engine exploded in smoke behind him.
It was his third engine failure in four races this year, leaving the once dominant Red Bull team on the cusp of serious problems with a four-engine limit ruling for the season with 15 races to go.
