Raikkonen on first pole of 2018: ‘Only half the job is done’
Kimi Raikkonen is determined to convert his first pol♕e position of the 2018 Formula 1 seaso💃n into victory at the Italian Grand Prix after completing “half the job” at Monza.
Raikkonen had been se🧜cond fastest behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton heading into the final runs of Q3 but benefitted from running in the slipstream of teammate Sebastian Vettel to outpace bo🌠th drivers.
He en꧂ded up 0.161s faster than Vettel to seal Ferrari’s first pole on home 🍬soil since 2010 in a dramatic ending to the closely-fought qualifying session.
Kimi Raikkonen is determined to convert his first pole position of the 2018 Formula 1 season into victory at th🙈e Italian Grand P🌠rix after completing “half the job” at Monza.
Raikkonen had been second fastest behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton ♉heading into the final runs of Q3 but benefitted from running in the slipstream of teammate Sebastian Vettel to outpace both drivers.
He ended up 0.161s faster than Vettel to seal Ferrari’s fi🧜rst pole on ho𝐆me soil since 2010 in a dramatic ending to the closely-fought qualifying session.
“It’s great for tomorrow but it’s justꦛ half the job done,” Raikkonen said. “I couldn’t think of a better place to start from pole position in front of the tifosi and hopefully we’ll get the same result tomorrow.
“Always, it doesn’t matter where we go, but here there’s even mor𝕴e tifosi. Hopefully tomorrow everything will go as smoothly as today and we end up in the same position.
“There were a lot of games to see who was 🦋going to go first and getting tows, but in the end we just drive the cars and that’s enough.”
It marked Raikkone𝓀n’s first pole since the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix and just his third in the last 10 years, b🍃ut the Finn stressed he did not feel any added emotions for ending his drought.
“It’s not a relief because it’s not my first pole position,” he added. “If this had been my first one then of course it🎃 would have been differ🍌ent.
“I keep trying always, and sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. It’s not൲ as easy as it looks on TV.
“Of course if you could c꧃hose from all the places, this is probably the best place to take pole position – I had been close a few times but it didn’t go right in the end.”
And Raikkonen🐷 insisted he and teammate Vettel will be free to race one another on Sunday𒉰.
“We can race each other but we obviously have to be careful with each othe🎉r, but I don’t see how it changes anyth𒈔ing,” he explained.
“I donꩲ’t think anybody wants purposely 🌠to take a stupid amount of risk and damage somebody else’s car and yours too at the same time.”
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