• Spanish GP - Race

Raikkonen fumes he is Ferrari's 'second choice'

ESPN Staff
May 12, 2014 « Pit stop gamble cost us points finish - Button | Alonso not expecting a quick fix »
Kimi Raikkonen could not keep Fernando Alonso at bay in his final stint © Getty Images
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Kimi Raikkonen wants an explanation from Ferrari on its pit stop strategy after he finished behind team-mate Fernando Alonso in Spain.

Alonso passed Raikkonen on fresher tyres in the closing stages in Spain on the back of a three-stop strategy, having earlier pitted before the Finn despite running behind Raikkonen on the road. Usually priority is given to the man running first, and at the end of the race Raikkonen asked on the radio "who made these calls?" complaining that he was receiving "second choice", and also walked away from TV interviews when asked about the strategy. Raikkonen admits he was confused by Ferrari's decision-making.

"No, but obviously I want to clear up a few things and that's all," he said when asked if he feels like Ferrari's number two driver. "Obviously there was not much between it, I ran out of tyres a little bit in that lap or two. We still finished far away from the others or where we want to be, so it did not make much difference, two or three stop."

Raikkonen feels he could have avoided being lapped by the Mercedes pair had the strategy been different, but thinks that should not mask the fact Ferrari has a lot of work to do.

"We are still sixth and seventh, one lap down. [A better strategy] could have probably kept myself in the lap but that doesn't change the fact that we are far away from where we want to be. I was just fighting with the car for the whole race. Overall I think we finished where our speed is among the teams."

Raikkonen insists no-one at Ferrari is happy with its current position in the pecking order and is convinced the team will work hard to get back into podium contention.

"It's disappointing for Ferrari but there was some good points from the weekend compared to the last weeks. We are not happy where we are as a team and we know we have a lot of work to do to catch up. In the future we know the areas where we are lacking, but it's not easy to catch up on each thing in F1.

"Other teams are pushing forward as well and there aren't many stupid people in this sport so it's about improving the small things and big things and hopefully we will get there."

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