• Malaysian GP - Qualifying

We made life difficult - Raikkonen

© Sutton Images

Enlarge

Kimi Raikkonen said he and Ferrari have made life difficult for themselves at the Malaysian Grand Prix after qualifying 11th in mixed conditions on Saturday.

As Q2 started the threat of rain was obvious and the cars queued in the pit lane in order to get on track as soon as possible. Raikkonen was in the middle of the pack and stuck behind the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who just managed to sneak into the top ten and through to Q3.

Raikkonen said being out of position on the grid was going to make his race tricky, despite promising pace over the course of the weekend in practice.

"Obviously we made our life very difficult, so I have no idea what we will do tomorrow," he said. "We will try our best and see where we end up.

"We have to go through those things and see where we come up, but it is too early to say. I don't know what will happen in the race, but we will do our best. It is not the ideal place to start but we have to wait and see."

But Raikkonen refused to blame Ferrari for putting him out on track too far down the queue when his team-mate Sebastian Vettel was at the front.

"It doesn't help to blame anyone, it is what it is. It is easier to say afterwards that we should have been waiting behind each other but the end result is this and whatever we do now doesn't change it. It is unfortunate"

Asked whether he should have tried harder to pass Ericsson, Raikkonen said: "I tried to overtake him because he was in front of me, I couldn't slow down because there were people pushing me forward. In my mind, we just got the timing wrong."

Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.