Räikkönen blames understeer at hairpin for disappointing qualifying
Kimi Räikkönen struggled all weekend to keep up the pace with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel on single lap pace and only finished sixth in the all-important qualifying session for the Canadian GP. The Finn claims to know the weak spots of his car, but his team was not able to cure that completely.
The 2007 world champion completed promising long runs on Friday, but failed to find the right balance on his qualifying simulations. He was happy with the changes his team made over Friday night though.
He managed to seal the sixth place in qualifying which is not that disappointing given the nature of the Montreal track which offers some overtaking spots. However, the Finn's problems were highlighted by the fact that his team-mate Sebastian Vettel went on to claim third place just under two tenths adrift the pole-position.
“Since yesterday evening we did a good job and improved a lot the behavior of the car, but today it was still not easy to put the car where I wanted.”
“It was a hectic qualifying session because of the weather conditions and I was not very happy with the driving.”
Räikkönen pinpointed turn 10 as the weakest spot where he has not really found the right settings for the front. The hairpin is crucial as it leads to the never-ending back straight.
“I had some issues here and there, I struggled in turn 10 all the times to make the front turn, and it was hard to put the lap together.”
Despite the issues the former champion is still hopeful that he can build on his race pace and end the troublesome weekend in a better way.
“It has not been an easy weekend so far and if you finish P6 there’s still work to be done, but I’m sure that for the race tomorrow the car will be better,” concluded the Finn.
Interestingly, the Finn had similar trouble last year at the Canadian Grand Prix, spinning at turn 10 during the race.
