Kimi Raikkonen claims he ‘could have won’ Bahrain GP in 2015

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

There may be no single driver more excited for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix than Kimi Raikkonen, who returns to the site which was one of his standout performances since his return to Ferrari.

Last season, the Finn was a man on a mission as he tore chunks of time out of Lewis Hamilton’s lead in the closing stages at Sakhir International Circuit before finishing a close second to the Mercedes driver.

Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has shown flashes of brilliance during his second stint at Ferrari amid numerous mechanical failures and ill-fated strategy calls.

Overall, the typically stoic Finn appears to have taken a liking to the Middle Eastern circuit.

“I enjoy Bahrain, obviously it’s good itself, not the most difficult corners but still hard to make a good lap there,” Raikkonen told F1i.com. “Obviously conditions can change a lot because of the wind, it’s hot at midday and cold enough in the evening, but it’s a good place.

“Maybe I could have won last year, but it’s pointless to start guessing things, we were second and that’s it. It was not too bad, but I guess it could have been better.”

A combination of long straights and tight corners put brakes to the absolute test.

“In an ideal word when all works it’s fine although obviously sometimes you can have issues, but we have a good system so far. This circuit is quite hard for practice, so some cars might run into problems with their brakes, but it really depends how much you are willing to push on the brake cooling if you have issues or not.”