‘A disaster, we have to make car faster’ – Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen had some choice words to say about his Alfa Romeo following another difficult weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix that saw him qualify last on the grid and pick up a penalty in the race.

Coming to the Hungaroring on the back of two disappointing races in Austria, Raikkonen had hoped for better fortune around a circuit he enjoyed one of his better 2019 results twelve months ago.

However, after setting the slowest time of all in a damp qualifying, Raikkonen hampered himself further on race day when he overshot his grid slot and didn’t have time to reverse back into position.

Earning himself a five-second time penalty, Raikkonen made up ground in the race to finish 15th but had scant positives to take away from the weekend as a whole.

“It has been a disaster but we just have to do things better,” Raikkonen said. “And we have to make the car faster – as simple as that.

“It wasn’t a very busy race for me. Unfortunately, starting where we did meant we had a very difficult job ahead of us: we did what we could but it wasn’t enough for points. Our pace wasn’t too bad, I made up a few places at the start but the penalty put me back at the bottom.

“The grid was a bit slippery, I went a bit too long into the box and I didn’t have the time to reverse; we could have been a few more places up so it’s a bit of a shame.

“We have a lot of work to do to improve our qualifying, but we can be positive about our performance on Sundays.”

After three rounds, Raikkonen is now one of only four drivers yet to score a point so far this season together with George Russell, Nicholas Latifi and Romain Grosjean.