• Belgian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Lotus is a match for Red Bull in the dry - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen believes Lotus can be competitive if Sunday's race is dry © Getty Images

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Kimi Raikkonen believes he can match the pace of the Red Bulls at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend and blames his lowly starting position on the unfortunate timing of his run with the weather.

Raikkonen was fastest in the second qualifying session, which mainly took place in dry conditions, but was caught out in the changing conditions in Q3 and will start from eighth on the grid on Sunday.

However, when asked if he thought the Red Bulls would have been out of reach in dry conditions, he said: "Not really because if we look just purely in the dry we were fastest in Q2. So for sure we could have been up there. In the wet we were not that fast, but even in Q1 when the timing was right we were not that bad.

"I think we improved today quite a bit the car since yesterday. The race is obviously the first story and we are not that fast in a straight line, so it's a very similar story to last season.

"We've been in much worse starting positions and made good results. I'm thinking that here you are able to overtake if you have the speed, so I think everything is possible."

Raikkonen said a dry race would suit Lotus better.

"Dry is better for our car, we say that all the time but we cannot choose that."

He said he had missed out on another lap in Q3 by as little as five seconds.

"Obviously we seem to have a pretty good speed in the dry, and also not too bad in the wet in Q1. We were lacking in the timing because if we could have done one more lap then for sure we should have been a bit more higher up because it dried so quickly. But when I came out the last corner I saw that the lights went red so we missed out by about five seconds. I don't know how the weather will be tomorrow and we will have to see what we can do in the race. Usually we can do a bit better."

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