It was not quite the highs of Austin but Kimi Raikkonen maintained his strong form with another podium place, this time at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Raikkonen started only sixth at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and slipped to seventh on the opening lap, before quickly getting back past Renault driver Carlos Sainz Jr.
Raikkonen executed a one-stop strategy to move past both Mercedes drivers and profited from Daniel Ricciardo’s late hydraulic failure to take third.
It marked Raikkonen’s 11th podium of the season.
“I think on the start, the initial start was OK, I was following Seb [Vettel] and then somehow that side of the road slowed down in the middle of the straight,” he said.
“I went on the other side but obviously I was behind Seb going through the first corner, and didn’t really want to get involved.
“I lost one place and got it back the next time around on the straight, so it wasn’t a big deal.”
Raikkonen described his race as “not the most exciting”, though did at least pass Valtteri Bottas on track after his compatriot heavily locked up and went wide.
“It was tricky with them,” he said. “I think I had more speed than the Mercedes in front of me, but tried to get past but just didn’t have enough of a good run on the straight and then yeah, my tyres basically gave up.
“We were planning to come in but then Mercedes came and we decided to do the opposite.
“I knew that we were going to go for one stop from that point and I think the tyres, the second set was very good but obviously we needed to look after then a bit too, to make it to the end.
“Not an awful lot happened after that.
“Obviously I caught up with the Mercedes, passed him, [he] locked up at the same time and went straight and then obviously I think it was Ricciardo had some issue and stopped.
“Good end result, not the most exciting race but that’s how it goes.”
Raikkonen maintained third position in the championship.
