Kimi Raikkonen will start on the front row of the grid for the British Grand Prix after a strong showing during qualifying on Saturday, although he did end up 0.547 seconds off Lewis Hamilton.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver felt his SF70H handled better during qualifying than at any other time this weekend, and although conditions were initially tricky, particularly during the first phase held in damp conditions, he was able to come through when it matters, out-qualifying team-mate Sebastian Vettel by two-tenths of a second.
“In qualifying the handling of my car was better than any other time this weekend and I was really happy with that,” said Raikkonen. “Obviously we always want to finish higher, but today we got more or less what we could.
“In Q1, with the intermediate tyres on a damp track, the conditions were a bit tricky. It was very slippery, but it was not wet everywhere and the tyres wore out very quickly. Luckily we did the last run at the right time and it was OK.
“After that, the track was getting better and better. My last lap felt good, but it was still a bit tricky to know where to go because it was still a bit damp here and there; so I took it quite easily at first and then decided to push a bit more.”
The result in qualifying gives Raikkonen hope that Ferrari can have a good race on Sunday, particularly as he feels there race pace is generally better than it is on a Saturday compared to that of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
“The feeling that I got with my car today was nice, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I hope that in the race we can improve,” said Raikkonen. “Usually, we are a bit stronger on Sunday”.
