Formula One news

KERS helped, explains Räikkönen

Kimi Räikkönen achieved his best finish of the season in Hungary by crossing the finish line in second place for Ferrari. After qualifying seventh on Saturday, the 2007 World Champion made the most of his Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to zoom down the outside of Turn 1.

With Fernando Alonso retiring minus his right-front wheel and Mark Webber being overhauled by the Ferrari driver, who passed the Australian in the opening stages of the race, the Finn was running second to Lewis Hamilton for the duration of the afternoon. "We got a very good start and that definitely helped," Kimi explained. "We knew before the race that we had to gain some places at the start to be able to fight for the podium."

After Monaco, this was Kimi's second podium of the year

With an overtake on Mark Webber boosting the Ferrari driver's chances for victory, a struggle to select first gear and subsequent long pit-stop did not. "I was fourth after the first few corners, behind Lewis, and he overtook Mark," Räikkönen continued. "I followed Mark and got him after the first pit-stop; he had some issues and I got past him - after that I was just driving my own race."

He did admit, however, that the reigning World Champion remained untouchable for most of the day. "I tried to catch up, I thought I had the speed for that, but then we were at the same speed and he was faster so the gap stayed more or less then same," Räikkönen continued. "Then I had some issues at last stop, which didn't help."

With retiree Sebastian Vettel having blamed contact with the Ferrari for causing suspension damage to the Red Bull, who was to blame for the incident at the start? "I didn't even noticed if I touched anybody," said Kimi. "I was between Mark and somebody else; I don't know what was going on - I didn't feel any touching so I cannot comment."

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