String of failures is weird – Raikkonen

KIMI RAIKKONEN SAYS HIS FERRARI TEAM’S recent run of engine failures is“a bit weird”, after it lost more ground in the drivers’and constructors’ championships in Japan.

His team-mate Sebastian Vettel retired early on with a spark-plug failure, while F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton won the race at Suzuka. It came after Vettel and Raikkonen suffered engine failures in Malaysia.

Hamilton’s win increased his lead to 59 points with just four races and 100 points remaining, while in the constructors’fight Ferrari trails Mercedes by 145.

“It’s a bit weird because on Saturdays, OK Seb had an issue before qualifying [in Malaysia], but it has been twice now the cars are running fine in qualifying and the next time we go out on Sunday we found some issues,” said Raikkonen, who recovered from starting 10th on the grid at Suzuka to finish fifth.

“We have to see why it is happening and fix it.

It’s one of those things that suddenly hits.”

Raikkonen’s weekend was hampered when he paid a“hefty price”for his mistake that led to his crash in final practice and forced a gearbox penalty. The team repaired the car to get him out in time for qualifying, but Raikkonen went wide at the same corner on his first Q3 run and ended up sixth after his second.

In the race, he had a poor first lap, losing five positions after running wide when battling Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.“i had decent speed for overtaking but it obviously wasn’t easy,”said Raikkonen.