Kimi Raikkonen admitted to being far from comfortable behind the wheel of his SF70H during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Finn unable to better fourth on the grid under the lights on Saturday.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver felt it was an improved performance compared to what transpired on Friday, but he could only get to within 0.578 seconds of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who was able to turn his own weekend to grab pole position.
Raikkonen said it was difficult to get a good set-up that allowed him to push in all three sectors around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but being fourth on the grid puts him in a good position on Sunday to get a good result, especially if he gets another ‘decent’ race start.
“It has been difficult since yesterday and even today it was not easy,” said Raikkonen. “The whole track felt very tricky to drive, it was hard to be quick and put the car where we wanted; in some sectors we were more competitive than in others.
“In qualifying it was a bit better compared to yesterday and this afternoon’s P3 practice, but I was still far from feeling comfortable to push. I was still fighting trying to do a good lap and it was easy to make mistakes and lose lap time.
“To finish fourth is not ideal but I’ll take it considering all the struggles that we have had so far; it could easily have been worse. At least we gave ourselves a chance for tomorrow and hopefully with a bit of luck we can gain some positions.
“We’ll tackle it as a new day. Lately our starts have been quite decent, so we’ll try to make good progress and see where we end up.”
