Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, but was disappointed to only find himself fifth on the grid, and 1.113s back on pole sitter Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn revealed that he was struggling with his car during the session and did not qualify where he wanted or expected to, but hopes to have a better race on Sunday around the Circuit de Catalunya.
“It was not an easy day: we did our best, but the result is a bit disappointing,” said Raikkonen. “We seemed to struggle quite a lot in the last sector and I’m not surprised we were losing a lot of time there.
“Before qualifying we made some changes to my set-up and the car felt better, but it was not easy to get the laps that we wanted and make the handling exactly as we desired.
“The car felt ok yesterday, today I was quicker, but the wind has been turning around a bit, making some places quite tricky. My last run was better than so far today, but obviously it’s not where we want to be.
“Our rivals did a better job today, we have to keep working and improving and see what we can do tomorrow in the race.”