Alfa Romeo admits it was relieved to see Kimi Raikkonen cross the finish line in the points after a tricky weekend with reliability.
Teammate Antonio Giovinazzi missed much of opening practice after a problem traced back to the installation of his power unit, then the same issue which impacted Charles Leclerc in Bahrain hit the Italian in qualifying.
Alfa was also the only Ferrari-powered outfit not to take a new control electronics in China, which was improved after Leclerc’s issue, but none of it hurt Kimi as he came home P9.
“I had my fingers crossed on the pitwall,” team boss Fred Vasseur told Autosport. “It was not easy to push on the buttons!
“Overall it was a good Sunday for us, we had a good recovery compared to [qualifying]. It’s important for us to score points every race and be consistent.”
Raikkonen echoed that sentiment stating: “Obviously, we at least got a few points and it is better than yesterday, for sure.”
However, never satisfied, the ‘Iceman’ revealed cold front tyres would impact his pace late on.
“The wear was very good, but it got too cold and I lost the grip in the front so I couldn’t push any more,” he explained.
“It was a bit of a shame as I felt we could quite easily have caught up with the other cars, but it didn’t work out at the end.”
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Ninth also continued the 2007 world champion’s run of points finishes to begin his second stint at the former Sauber team.
“We know perfectly well that if we want to stay on the top of the rest – I don’t care if it’s P4 or P5 – we have to be consistent over all the races, and be able to score points in every single event,” Vasseur noted.
Currently, Alfa sit tied fourth with Renault in the Constructors’ Championship with 12 points, all thanks to Raikkonen,
