After Suffering difficulties in Saturday qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen drove a superb, if not quite lonely, race to finish on the third step of the rostrum. Even though this was a good result for the Kimster, as it signalled his 90th career podium finish, it was obviously not what his Ferrari team were looking for.
Kimi's teammate Sebastian Vettel, needed to finish second or higher to keep the title fight alive, however, the German's start was compromised and it sent not only the Ferrari but his title rival Lewis Hamilton tumbling down through the grid.
Kimi kept his nose clean and worked his way up to third place, passing the Force India of Esteban Ocon, who held the position for some time, and eventually crossed the line some twenty seconds ahead of his fourth placed teammate, and twenty seconds behind the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.
โThe start was not too bad, but then I moved to the left and lost the tow,โ Kimi explained. โI found myself blocked and lost many places in the first two corners. Then I had to wait for the cars in front to stop, to be able to push and gain positions.โ
โMy car was a bit better and we had decent speed. Once I was third, I could try to catch up, but I was too far from Valtteri and there was nothing I could really do. I focused on finishing the race and on keeping my position.โ
โThis year we have made a good step forward from last season, but obviously we still have a few small things to improve. I think that in this season we've had a good and solid car. Lately we've had some issues, but the speed has been there. Obviously too many DNFs cost us a lot in the Championship. For next year we have to minimize those issues, improve things and learn from this season.โ
