SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Kimi Raikkonen said a Ferrari blunder forced him to watch the closing moments of Q3 from the garage and see his name slip down to sixth on the timing screens.
Ferrari had looked like favourite for pole in the dry conditions but the rain which hit Q3 changed everything. The Finn had briefly been on provisional pole but soon had to return to the pit-lane as he did not have enough fuel in his car to attempt another run.
“I knew how much fuel I had but I didn’t know we didn’t have time to refuel and go out again,” Raikkonen said afterwards. “I guess we should have stopped when changed the tyres, we should have put more fuel and then would have managed to do more laps.”
“We knew how much there was but maybe we should have done differently and brought the car in and a bit more fuel and be out there in the end, but I don’t know.
“I think that’s what the other car did, so [in] hindsight [it] would have been the right choice. I thought we had time enough anyhow to come in and change, but this is what happened.”
Raikkonen will start from the third row, behind two Force Indias and the Haas of Romain Grosjean. Though those cars should be easy to clear for the Ferrari Raikkonen regrets having to start from down the order when a better result was on the cards.
“There was not much I could have done differently out there. It’s frustrating, it’s painful in the way we made our Sunday a hell of a lot more difficult.
“Here, unfortunately, often the first corner isn’t very clean because of the layout of the circuit, so the further back you start, the bigger risk that something goes wrong, so adding all the things it’s definitively not great but what can I do? We’ll try tomorrow again, hopefully learn from mistakes and keep going.”