Raikkonen "confident" of Imola points challenge

Kimi Raikkonen believes Alfa Romeo has the pace to fight for points at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but is 'under no illusion' it will be easy.

Alfa Romeo showed promising pace in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix but failed to leave the Gulf State with points after Raikkonen and team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi finished 11th and 12th.

A combination of tweaks made to the aerodynamic regulations and an all-new power unit from supplier Ferrari has pushed the team back into points contention having spent the majority of last year fighting in the lower order.

“We are confident we can be in the middle of the fight for points in Imola as well, but we are under no illusions it is going to be easy," said Raikkonen.

"We saw in Bahrain that even a good weekend doesn’t mean a top ten finish, so we know we have to keep pushing to improve everything we do from Thursday to Sunday: the difference between finishing just behind the top teams and outside of the top ten will be very small."

Team principal Fred Vasseur believes Alfa Romeo has made one of the biggest steps forward of any team on the grid to put itself firmly in points contention.

Last year, Alfa Romeo scored its best result of the year at Imola after both Raikkonen and Giovinazzi finished inside the points, a factor that offers Vasseur 'encouragement' ahead of the weekend.

Raikkonen added: "Hopefully, we can do our homework, have a good weekend and we get to be in that first group: we know what is in our control and what isn’t, so we just have to make sure we perform as we know we can."

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