Kimi Raikkonen will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from the outside of the front row but felt he could have secured pole position if not for a mistake at the chicane on his fastest lap.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver was only 0.168 seconds away from his team-mate Sebastian Vettel during the top ten shootout, but feels it was a pole position that got away from him, although he was still happy to be on the front row.
“First and second position is a very good result for team,” said Raikkonen. “We kind of expected that this circuit would fit us better for certain reasons, but of course you cannot ever take it for granted.
“Today I really felt I had the speed, but I made a rather stupid mistake at the chicane, I put the left wheels on the kerb under braking, got sideways and lost time. I’m a bit disappointed with what I did, because I had the chance to be one place up, but I ‘m happy because I still managed to take second place.”
Raikkonen knows Sunday’s race will not be easy for anyone, especially as Ferrari, the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Red Bull Racing are all closely matched on pace, but he believes the opening ten laps will show whether he’s on course for a good result, and he hopes to get the jump on his team-mate at the start.
“It’s been quite close between three teams so far, so tomorrow it all will depend on what happens in the first ten laps; it’s not going to be an easy race for anyone,” said Raikkonen.
“There’s no way to plan things for the first two corners. The one who makes the best start has the better chances. Tomorrow we’ll have a long way to go to replicate today’s result!”
