MONZA, Italy — Kimi Raikkonen says he is free to race Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel for victory at the Italian Grand Prix, as long as the pair avoid a collision.
Raikkonen took a surprise pole position at Monza on Saturday, creating an awkward situation for the team ahead of Sunday’s race.
Vettel leads Raikkonen by 68 points in the drivers’ standings, and is the only realistic challenger to championship leader Lewis Hamilton, but on Sunday will start from second place behind the Finn.
Ferrari’s race strategy has occasionally favoured Vettel over Raikkonen in recent years and the German has taken all 13 of the team’s victories during their time as teammates.
Asked if he would be allowed to challenge Vettel into the first corner on Sunday, Raikkonen said there were no team orders in place to prevent him going for the win.
« We can race each other but we obviously have to be careful with each other, but I don’t see how it changes anything, » Raikkonen said. « I don’t think anybody wants purposely to take a stupid amount of risk and damage somebody else’s car and yours too at the same time. »
Raikkonen’s pole position at Monza was Ferrari’s first on home turf since 2010. Despite the celebrations in the grandstands around the circuit, Raikkonen said the pole had not felt any different to the other ones during his career.
« I’ve been on pole 17 times before and it’s a similar story. For sure it’s a special place to get pole position in our home Grand Prix, in front of our fans. But it’s not any different from the other ones. It’s good today, hopefully tomorrow is another good day. »
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/24544765/kimi-raikkonen-free-race-sebastian-vettel
