- Italian GP - Qualifying
Poor form an 'unpleasant surprise' - Raikkonen
Kimi Raikkonen said his lack of pace was an "unpleasant surprise" during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen got knocked out in Q2 and will start 11th on Sunday's grid once Daniil Kvyat's grid penalty is taken into account. The Ferrari driver said he struggled with locking the front tyres but denied it was down to the pressure of trying to make the top ten in a tightly-packed field.
"There was no [extra] pressure," he said. "I always put pressure on myself to do well but for some reason I kept locking the fronts a bit. I could make one sector good, but not all in a row and that was difficult for us. I was a bit surprised and it was a very unpleasant surprise, but these things happen. Hopefully we will find an explanation and tomorrow is a different day so hopefully we will go to the maximum.
"We knew that qualifying would be difficult compared to some of the Mercedes people. They usually make a bigger step for that and then it comes back a bit in the race. For me we changed the car a little bit, but it's hard to believe those small changes made it as difficult as it was - that's how it is. We will try to have a much better day tomorrow."
Raikkonen said his Friday practice running suggested Ferrari would be more competitive in the race.
"We had a pretty oaky long run and it's been a pretty okay weekend overall, but obviously it was a bit disappointing the qualifying. I believe that we have a good chance to fight tomorrow, but in the race it's hard to say how it's going to be because many cars are close to each other and we don't know if we have enough speed to overtake people. We will know tomorrow and we should be stronger than today. Hopefully we will make a good result."
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