Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari career came to an inglorious end on Sunday, when an electrical failure forced him out on Lap 8.
Raikkonen had been running P4 in the early stages of the race, his final one with Ferrari before his departure to Sauber. However, he slowed down and stopped on the start/finish straight on Lap 8. His dashboard was fully dark, indicating a full shutdown of the car and, despite running through different start-up procedures, his day was done.
“Obviously I’m a bit disappointed. It’s not the way we wanted this last race together to finish. We wanted to do well and I think we would have had a pretty good car for the job. Unfortunately we had an electrical issue; in the back straight, I felt I was lacking power and then everything shut down. It’s a pity but that’s how racing goes sometimes. It’s been a pretty decent season, but the four retirements were not in our plans and obviously did not help; we wanted more for sure.”
Raikkonen, who was joined by his wife Minttu and his two children for his final race with the Scuderia after first joining them at the end of 2006, was applauded by the Ferrari team as he left the garage for the grid for the final time and the normally taciturn Finn acknowledged the support he had felt throughout the weekend:
“I want to thank all the Ferrari fans who always gave me a lot of support. We went through good and bad times together, and this makes it all the more interesting. Of course we wanted a better finish, but that’s part of the sport. We will always have the memories of winning the Drivers’ Championship and two Constructors Championship together.”
With Sebastian Vettel & Max Verstappen overtaking Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas on track before the Finn was forced to pit again and settle for P5, Kimi Raikkonen secured P3 in the Driver’s Championship.
Raikkonen now turns his attention to testing with his new team; he is scheduled to drive the Sauber during testing in Abu Dhabi this week.
