Kimi Raikkonen says he wondered what his rivals were doing as he gained 10 places on an extraordinary opening lap to Formula 1’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
Alfa Romeo racer Raikkonen started from 16th place and was the only driver outside of the top 10 to do so on Soft rubber on an Algarve circuit that lacked grip and had been slightly dampened by a light rain shower.
But while Raikkonen passed rivals on harder tyres with relative ease he also worked his way past opponents on Softs, including Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull’s Alexander Albon.
Raikkonen held a position inside the top six after the frantic opening couple of laps – though regressed through the order thereafter and classified in 11th spot.
“I don’t think the start itself was very good – I lost a place – but then after that honestly I thought at one point ‘what are the others doing?,” he said.
“I had a good first and then second lap, the speed was decent in the car most of the race, then we had a little bit of difficulties in the pit stop and in the end I lost 10th place to [Sebastian] Vettel with old tyres.
“We got nothing out of it, so that’s a shame. We need more speed then everything will become a little bit easier.”
Raikkonen’s team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi also finished outside of the points as he classified in 15th position.
Alfa Romeo nonetheless maintained eighth in the Constructors’ Championship as nearest opponents Haas and Williams also failed to score.
