Raikkonen: I deserved Hamilton clash penalty

Kimi Raikkonen says he fully accepts his 10-second time penalty for clashing with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix but was content with his fightback to take third place and maintain his rostrum run.

The Finnish driver produced a strong getaway off the line to get alongside Hamilton into Turn 3 but locked his front wheels under braking which sent him into Hamilton causing the Mercedes driver to spin.

It was a carbon-copy incident to Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel’s clash with Valtteri Bottas at the French Grand Prix, where the German driver was handed a five-second penalty, but for the Finn’s error the FIA race stewards handed double the punishment which he had no complaints about.

“In the third corner I locked the wheel and I was behind the cars, so I ended up hitting Lewis in the rear corner,” Raikkonen explained. “I oversteered, he spun, my bad, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“It was my mistake, so that’s fine. I deserved it and took the 10 seconds and kept fighting. That’s how it goes.

“Without the mistakes and the 10-second penalty it would have been better but I tried. Obviously my view is that I did the best that I could do but obviously there seems to be some awfully opposite looks on what I’m doing.”

After serving his penalty during his first pit stop, Raikkonen returned to track action in the thick of the midfield fight but quickly carved his way back up to the front, getting past both Red Bull cars in the process, before producing a late race overtake on Bottas to claim third place.

“It was tricky with Red Bull for whatever reason,” he said. “Every time we got close to them or behind them it seems to be very difficult to follow them, seems to be just different than any other car.

“We had some fights with them at the beginning of the race and at the end and managed to finally get past them. I think the Mercedes was somehow more easy to follow. Much less effect on my car. We got a pretty decent run out of Three every lap, got the momentum and managed to pass [Bottas]. So, it was okay but obviously but far from ideal. That’s how it goes.”

Raikkonen has claimed a hat-trick of podiums over the Formula 1 triple-header to see him fortify his third place in the drivers’ standings with a 10-point gap to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.