(Scuderia Ferrari SpA -formula1.ferrari.com)
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen put on a great demonstration of wheel to wheel inter team action for the crowd at today's Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos as the pair battled each other in the closing stages of the race giving each other plenty of space on track and respecting each other. The pair ran extremely close on track with Raikkonen on older tyre's leading the charging Alonso who was o tyre's that were 17 laps longer pushing the Finn all the way.
Alonso would eventually pass the Iceman to finish just ahead of him in sixth place in the race. Speaking to the Ferrari website following the penultimate race of the season Alonso stated:
'After a far from easy weekend, I am reasonably pleased with the outcome of the race, because even if we weren’t very competitive, we managed to score a good number of points.
Today, degradation was particularly high, especially in the first stint on the Softs, which lasted less time than expected because of graining. When I passed Kimi, my tyres were newer than his, as he was on a two stop, but I was having to save fuel and after that overtaking move, there was nothing more I could do.
Now there’s just one race to go this season and in terms of the Constructors’ Championship, we hope to manage to keep McLaren behind us in the final race in Abu Dhabi. As for myself, I reckon I’m in the position I deserve, because others have done better.'
Heading into this weekend's race Kimi Raikkonen was in 12th place in the championship following what has been by his own admission a disappointing season. The Finn was in a positive mood ahead of today's race following positive outings in the F14-T during Practice which bodes well for the 2015 season.
The Finn started today's race from tenth place on the grid and held his own against Fernando Alonso putting up a fantastic fight to stay ahead of him for a number of laps towards the end of the race. Raikkonen also found himself running as high up as third place at one point in the race. The Iceman also completed the most number of consecutive laps doing 36 laps in his final stint of the race on the P-Zero Medium tyre.
The Finn ended the race just behind Alonso in seventh place and was much closer to the Spaniard this weekend and following his seventh place finish has moved into eleventh place in the championship so will be hoping to end the season on a high by breaking into the top ten with a strong result in Abu Dhabi which is worth double points.
Speaking to the Ferrari F1 website following the race, Raikkonen stated;
'Overall, this has been a positive weekend and even today in the race, I felt very good in the car. During the second stint, we realised that if we went for a two stop strategy, we could make up ground, but then, at my second pit stop, I lost valuable time and that cost me some places.
In the final part of the race, I had to fight off Button for a few laps and when Fernando caught me, tyre degradation meant I couldn’t fend him off. We leave Interlagos with a good feeling and even if we still have a lot of work ahead of us, this continued progress makes me confident for the future.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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