quoteKimi looks forward as “issues have been understood”
"Interlagos is a great and unique place. I have great memories here from 2007, it was my first year with Ferrari and I won the Championship at the end of a tricky season. Driving has always been good here, there’s a lot of history and heritage with great Brazilian drivers and people are very passionate about Formula1. It’s the kind of track that always produces better racing than others . Obviously the layout is a big key, because you can follow the people and the long straight creates opportunities to overtake. There are not many corners here and it’s very close between the teams because the lap time is a bit shorter. To have a good car you need the same stuff you need in any other race tracks, the car has to be strong everywhere. We have been trying to improve our performance all year, we need more grip and more power to go faster, it sounds very simple but unfortunately it’s not. So far we understood quite a lot of things and I have a lot of trust that we will fix these issues. This is also the last home race for Felipe, we have been teammates and we have always had a good relationship. As long as he’s happy, that’s the best thing to do and I wish him the best for his future."
quoteKimi at ease with Soft tires. Brake issue caused by visor
“It was a pretty normal Friday: we tried different things to make it better for tomorrow. It was a bit tricky to find the balance, the set-up is not ideal yet, but we are going in the right direction. I only did a few laps with the Soft, it felt pretty ok and obviously it has the best grip. Unfortunately at the end of the second session we had an issue with one visor which obstructed the cooling duct: the brakes overheated and I had to stop.”
quoteFerrari’s Kimi Raikkonen described his run in Q3 as average, however that average lap time of 01:11.404s means that the Iceman starts Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix from third place on the grid behind the Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Speaking following the session, Raikkonen commented by saying: "Today everything felt a bit more normal than yesterday and I was happier with the car. Overall it was easier for everybody, the cooler temperatures helped, yesterday the track was very hot. To be honest the feeling in the last lap was not so good, the front was sliding in the first two corners and I struggled a bit in the middle sector to put the lap together. I knew that it was better than the previous one but I thought it wouldn’t be enough because it was not an ideal one; It was good enough to be third and I’m positively surprised. Mercedes was too far but today it worked out pretty well and we can be happy with this result. There is potential in the car, we are getting where we should be. Tomorrow we can only do our best, with weather conditions you never know and things can quickly change."
quoteWhat’s behind the rise and further rise of Kimi Raikkonen in F1 2016?
If you had asked a cross section of F1 insiders and fans at the start of the season for a prediction of where the two Ferrari drivers would stand on competitiveness, few of them would have predicted 10-10 in qualifying at this stage.
Kimi Raikkonen’s astonishing third place in Brazil qualifying, ahead of Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel is the fourth race in a row that the Finn has out qualified his younger, four times world champion team mate. This time last year Vettel was solidly ahead on all metrics and had won three races.
Yet Raikkonen has been resurgent this season and in the F1 world drivers’ championship standings there are only 9 points between them, with Vettel having got ahead in Austin, where Raikkonen retired.
So what lies behind this turnaround for Raikkonen?
Typically the phlegmatic Finn is not giving anything away and will say only that the car suits him better. A large part of his problem before was in the front end of the car and the sensitivity on cornering.
Perhaps Raikkonen’s style is more dependent on the front end than some other drivers, but the word is that the key change that has brought this renaissance about is Ferrari’s switch from pull-rod from suspension to push-rod.
Ferrari had been an outlier in the previous seasons, as the sole team opting to use a system which lowers the centre of gravity of the car and which Ferrari perceived could help with aerodynamics – as it takes the strut away from some of the vortices off the front wing.
The push-rod suspension, which has a diagonal strut from the wheels to the rocker, has better geometry and has proved more confidence-inspiring for the drivers.
The weakness of this year’s Ferrari is in low speed corners, both in aerodynamics and mechanical traction. The strength is the engine and clearly the front end of the car is working well, which gives the team something to build on for next season, when the cars will have higher downforce and more mechanical grip from the tyres. The floor and diffuser of the cars will be much more important than today and it is from there that the majority of the extra downforce to make the cars four to five seconds a lap faster will come.
Today was a good example of Raikkonen’s 2016 form; he was fastest in Sectors 1 and 3 during the Saturday practice session, only losing ground to the other teams in the long middle sector where low speed aero is the key. Precision is the name of the game at Interlagos as the lap is short and the lines are defined so the added confidence from the front end of the car doing exactly what he wanted it to do, gave Raikkonen the edge and showed that at 37 he still has plenty to offer in F1.
“I think we’re lacking a bit of downforce overall there [Sector 2], comparing maybe to the guys in front of us – but you know the car’s been behaving today, pretty good and just been struggling on the tight corners to turn around the car and a bit of front-locking so obviously it’s been a bit guessing whether we can turn or not,” said the Finn.
Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene denied again this weekend that Vettel is in ‘crisis’ or that his fiery behaviour in Mexico showed his frustration at a season of broken dreams.
“Sebastian is quite emotional. Sometimes he looks a bit more Latino than German,” said Arrivabene. “He’s very passionate, especially when he’s driving and it’s in a racing battle.
“It’s not a question of frustration. Sometimes he can be unhappy as we are unhappy because our expectations are different. But he’s not a guy who is giving up; he’s a guy that is pushing like hell. Sometimes when the adrenalin is going up to the sky, maybe he’s choosing a word more than what is expected, but then my role, like in Mexico, is also to call him and to invite him to be focused on what he’s doing.”
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Thu Nov 10, 2016 8:56 pm
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Jalumi
Nice birthday present for Minttu who turn 30 today 
in Brazil 
