• British Grand Prix

Raikkonen hopes better qualifying pace will pay off

Kimi Raikkonen took his third podium of the season in Valencia but has yet to qualify in the top three © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• British Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Kimi Räikkönen

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Kimi Raikkonen believes he and Lotus have found the right direction with his setup for qualifying and he is confident he will be higher up the grid at the next few races.

Raikkonen qualified fifth in Valencia after two slightly disappointing performances at the previous two races, where he was 12th in Canada and eighth in Monaco. Raikkonen has showed very strong pace in the race, with three podiums this year, and is hoping that he will now start to show similar pace in qualifying.

"I think we've had a chance [of getting on the front row] at a few races but we haven't got the best out of it and maybe we have made mistakes a few times," he said. "But at the last race we had a pretty good qualifying and hopefully we feel a bit more comfortable to go into qualifying than we did before - personally, at least for me. Hopefully we have found the right direction and the small details that mean we can be even more comfortable here and at the next race."

Raikkonen said a good start to the race would be crucial for securing the first victory of his comeback.

"I got a very good start off the line at the last race and then got blocked in that first little kink and lost quite a few places because of that. They're all small things but if you get it right you are suddenly much higher up at the start and that will give you a much better race. You don't have to fight and use the tyres so hard fighting against people. We just have to do things a bit better and we'll get there."

But Raikkonen, who is 38 points off the lead of the championship, said he is not thinking about the title at the moment.

"Like I always said, I try to take it race by race and do as well as we can. It's still an awfully long way to go and we will see closer to the end of the season where we are. We're still not in the best possible position, but not too bad either. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and try to avoid the bad races and hopefully we will keep ourselves in there until the end of the season."

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