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Raikkonen finishes third in Mexico: "Did what I could with one stop"

23:48, 28 Oct 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Kimi Raikkonen has explained that he did all that he could in the Grand Prix in Mexico, as he finished third despite only stopping once for a fresh set of tyres in 71 laps of racing.

The Finn, who won the last race in the United States, started sixth in Mexico, behind all other Big Three team-cars. Slowly but surely, he climbed his way up though, as the Ice Man managed his tyres very well, only coming in once to get a fresh set of super-softs bolted on.

He got past Valtteri Bottas as his fellow countryman locked up before turn one and then also got past Lewis Hamilton as the Brit had to pit two times. Then, when Daniel Ricciardo retired for the umpteenth time, Raikkonen found himself on a podium-finish.

"The tires lasted quite well, but I could not push any more and I got the best [result] I could," he was quoted by Motorsport.

"Obviously I would like to do more - certainly a podium is not bad, but there are still two races to do better."

Looking back at the Grand Prix as a whole, Raikkonen said that it wasn't all that exciting for him as he was mostly managing tyres.

"It was certainly not the most exciting race, I tried to overtake the Mercedes at the beginning because we imagined they were on a one stop, but I did not find any gaps and the tires got damaged.

"At the end the front left was very deteriorated, but all in all they still worked well."