Raikkonen blames hairpin lockups for qualifying struggle

The Finn was 0.589s slower than Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was third fastest and just 0.178s off pole.

“We struggled a bit in Turn 10 the whole qualifying,” Raikkonen explained. “And we lost a lot of time there all the time there, with front locking.

“There were some good place and certain places where I struggled the whole qualifying, and you lose a lot of time here. Not ideal, but that's how it was here.

“Unfortunately here when you have a small issue before the straight you pay a big penalty in lap time. That's how it was in qualifying.

“There were places where we were very good, and some where we took a hit. In Turn 10 we struggled to make the front turn very well. In the entry we took a hit for that, and the exit, and that was probably the biggest issue that we had. The rest wasn't too bad.”

"Certain the car will be better in race"

Raikkonen didn't want to blame tyre warm-up for his problems.

“I don't know, it's been better,” he said. “Obviously yesterday we struggled with many things, but today the car was a lot better.

“In qualifying I don't think it was so much warm-up. It was not ideal, I think everybody was doing prep laps, but this I where we end up, and that's it. I'm certain the car will be better in the race, but it's not easy where we will start.”

Regarding the prospects of a wet race he said: “For sure it's not an easy place for that, but it's the same for everybody. We'll just have to make the best out of it.”