Kimi Raikkonen was left dissatisfied after qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after feeling he had the car for third on the grid, only to be denied at the end of the session by Daniel Ricciardo.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver ultimately was forced to settle for fourth, finishing just 0.015 seconds down on the Red Bull Racing driver, but Raikkonen admitted his final lap around the Yas Marina Circuit was not perfect and he could and should have been the best of the rest behind the dominant Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers.
“It was a pretty good qualifying, the car has behaved well all day,” said Raikkonen. “Today we went a lot faster than we had been in practice, we did our best and it was almost enough for third place, but my last lap was not perfect in some places.”
Raikkonen believes Mercedes will continue to show their strength on race day on Sunday, but insists he will do his best to get the best possible result in the final Grand Prix of the season.
“It’s hard to say if we’ll be able to fight with the Mercedes tomorrow: usually in race conditions we are a bit closer, but I’m sure they will also be very strong,” said Raikkonen.
“Tomorrow we can only do our best, we’ll try to make a good start and then we’ll see.”
