Raikkonen Downplays Angry Radio Conversation

The Finn got into a heated exchange on his team radio after a lack of information from his team.

Kimi Raikkonen has said he was aware of Sebastian Vettel's eventual race-winning strategy despite a heated radio exchange during the race with his engineer.

Raikkonen was looking set for P2 after his teammate made his one and only stop of the race, however, a virtual safety car put pay to any designs the Finn had on second place as Vettel rejoined in the lead of the Australian Grand Prix.

Carlos Santi, Raikkonen's new race engineer, was given an earful over the team radio but after the race, his apparent anger had subsided and he told a contrary story and denied he was surprised by the teams call.

"Not really," he said.

"The only thing I was surprised because we were talking on the radio that they didn’t let me know what he was doing.

"Obviously we talked before the race and there were hundreds of options what we can do and that was his best option and no threat from behind.

"He would obviously take a chance because he had nothing else to lose at that point, safe in third place so it would work out well.

"I wasn’t really surprised what they did. I was surprised that we didn’t – at one point – know exactly."

Raikkonen went on to finish third behind his race-winning teammate and Lewis Hamilton, who himself was left "in disbelief" having seemed favourite for the win prior to the VSC being deployed.