Kimi Raikkonen believes Alfa Romeo extracted the most it could from its C38 as he capped the opening half of 2019 with another points finish in Hungary.
Raikkonen secured a Q3 spot at the Hungaroring and moved past Romain Grosjean early on, before capitalising from Lando Norris’ slow pit stop and the out-of-sync Valtteri Bottas to take seventh.
It equalled Raikkonen’s best result of his tenure with Alfa Romeo, having also classified in seventh in Bahrain and France, as well as in Germany prior to the team’s penalty.
“For sure we got the best out of the car, we had a little bit more speed than McLaren at the beginning of the race, but it’s very difficult to overtake,” said Raikkonen.
“The only thing we could have maybe done better would have been to stop one lap earlier, to keep the Red Bull behind.
“Obviously we also gained the place from one of the McLaren and after the pit stop I just took care of the tyres and then I pushed in the end, again.
“The car was good, we just need to make it faster but we did what we could.”
Raikkonen sits eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, with 31 points, second only to McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in the unofficial midfield standings.
“I think we started the season quite well, for sure there were things we could have done a bit better here and there,” Raikkonen said.
“Then we had quite a difficult moment for something like four races and since then we’ve done the right things, improving, and the car is not bad when we can fight against the McLaren.
“Later on in the season we’re going to get new parts and we should improve again and from that side I’m happy.
“Obviously for a small team it takes longer than in the bigger teams, but the things are working when we bring them.”
