Kimi Raikkonen is hoping to bounce back from a poor Chinese Grand Prix in which he came so close to a podium, until the closing laps when his tyres gave up on him.
The Finn was in second behind Nico Rosberg at one point, but a two stop strategy meant his tyres had completed several laps more than those involved in the battle behind him. Once Sebastian Vettel got past, it opened the door up to a stampede of cars and Raikkonen dropped from second to his final finishing position of 14th in just 12 laps.
The 2007 world champion has moved past that, and says his focus is to finish on the podium in Bahrain, where the temperatures should better suit his E20.
“We were pretty close to finishing on the podium,” said Raikkonen. “We didn’t. That’s racing.”
Speaking about Sakhir, he said: “It’s likely to be quite hot and our car didn’t like the cold so much when we were in China so maybe the heat will suit us better. The track has a mixture of corners and it’s quite fun to race on. There are some opportunities to overtake so let’s see what happens.”
Of his expectations for the race, he added: “A podium should be possible and I think it has been at all the races we’ve been at so far,” he continued. “We don’t know exactly how good the car will be until we get there, but we don’t expect any problems.”
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