Raikkonen talks about luck after Azerbaijan GP podium finish

Kimi Raikkonen considers himself very lucky to have made it to the podium in Azerbaijan, as at one stage it looked like it would have been difficult to even see the chequered flag.

In the first lap of the race on Turn 3, Raikkonen and Esteban Ocon had a coming together, which ended the race for Ocon and damaged Raikkonen’s front wing.

Raikkonen did make good use of the safety car caused by the Verstappen-Ricciardo crash, but ended up hitting the wall right after the restart. But the SF71H survived and so did Raikkonen, ending the weekend on the podium.

“Obviously it destroyed the front wing and the right front tyre, they changed it and I haven’t checked the car afterwards. Also, I think it was on the first lap after the restart, coming to the last part of the straight, I hit the inside wall at full speed, so I was pretty lucky that the front wheel didn’t go. I was expecting it to go faster. The car felt OK, honestly, sometimes more than others, so I’m sure there was no big damage.” he said, as reported by ESPN.

Raikkonen hasn’t won a race for Ferrari since 2014 and hopes that he gets the rub of the green sometime along the line and registers his first grand prix win for some years now.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a lot of luck over the years but I don’t count that, you cannot count that. You get what you deserve, in a way, and sometimes you’re lucky. If you look all over the years I’m far from the positive side. Maybe today certain things came in our direction, but whatever happened in front of us was also self-made issues, in may ways.

“They had troubles, it was that kind of race. Knowing what happened last year I knew it was going to pay off. I’m happier that I have the speed, I know that I have the speed, today and yesterday I had some issues, but the best thing is that we have the speed, so we just have to put it together and it will come.” Raikkonen concluded.