Qualifying ruined my chances – Räikkönen

Kimi Räikkönen ended the Monaco GP in sixth position after a dismal qualifying session on Saturday. However, the Finn can see bright future for his team.

Räikkönen has been hampered by his qualfying struggles, although his race pace has been exceptional according to the team boss, Maurizio Arrivabene.

Kimi had an incredible middle stint in Australia, had tremendous pace in Malaysia after an early puncture, showed a storming pace in the last part of the Chinese GP to attack his team-mate until a late Safety Car stopped his ambitions, had an exceptional middle stint in Bahrain to fight for the race win in the dying minutes of the GP, had strong pace in free air in Spain and in Monaco he set the absolute best times in the first two sectors on heavily used tyres when he could drive in free air.

The Finn was however prepared for stuggles in the race after Saturday.

“We knew that after starting from sixth position it would have been a difficult race. I was all the time behind slower cars and there was no way to overtake them even if I had a much better pace.”

However, Ferrari could leapfrog one of their rivals during the pit stop thanks to Kimi’s in-lap, but a late move from Daniel Ricciardo on fresh supersoft tyres sent Kimi back to his starting position.

„At the the pit stop we managed to pass one Red Bull, we gained one place but we lost it for a stupid reason. I was following my normal line when Ricciardo hit my rear tire and pushed me wide, regaining the position. It’s not very clear what you are allowed to do, it’s really odd but there’s nothing we can do.”

The 2007 champion admitted he knew what had to be done before the next GP to lift his chances in the races.

„For the next races we have to make a better job overall to make sure we get tires working and things sorted out without mistakes on Saturday in qualifying. This will make our life a lot easier on Sunday.”

The field now heads to Canada where the supersoft any soft tyres should contribute to a spectacular race as tyre wear should be higher and due to the temperatures the warm-up period should be easier to manage.

„Now we go to Canada a bit happier overall but it’s too early to make predictions, we have similar tires but the layout of the track is completely different, so let’s wait and see,” Kimi added.