Raikkonen pleased by Ferrari pace despite “messy” qualifying

2017 Australian Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen took encouragement from Ferrari’s pace in qualifying despite being out-qualified by both Mercedes drivers and his team mate.

Raikkonen, who will start fourth on the grid, admitted he was disappointed with a “messy” Q3 after he “didn’t get any decent laps together” but believes the team are in good shape.

Australian Grand Prix qualifying in pictures
“I mean obviously we need to put the lap together but apart from that we have a very good package for sure,” he said. “We have work to be done but that’s the same for everybody.”

His team mate Sebastian Vettel qualified on the front row, 0.268 seconds off pole sitter Lewis Hamilton.

He pointed out the Albert Park circuit is not typical of many other venues on the F1 calendar and it’s too soon to make a call on how they will perform at other tracks.

“It’s a very special place here so let’s wait and see when we get to the normal circuits,” he said. “I think so far it’s OK. Obviously not an ideal day from my side but we go from here.”

A stoppage during the final practice session hampered Raikkonen’s qualifying preparation. “It was basically just a flat tyre,” he explained. “There was a cut I guess from debris or something.”

“I ran a little bit too wide on a kerb so I don’t know was it from that but then obviously I slowed down and the car stopped and took a while to start going.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Raikkonen pleased by Ferrari pace despite “messy” qualifying”

  1. Profile Photo

    Todfod (@todfod)
    25th March 2017, 12:53

    Pretty shabby stuff from Kimi today. Ferrari did mess his setup up though.. but nonetheless, I expected more of him based on his late 2016 form.

  2. Profile Photo

    Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
    25th March 2017, 16:26

    Regardless of whether Ferrari can match Mercedes. Melbourne plays to the Mercs strengths, I don’t know whether Mercedes have solved their understeer, looking at Bottas I would say no but he’s done a good job just flooring the car around, that rear end is perfect for a track like this. The change of direction is phenomenal on the Mercedes. I wouldn’t be so optimistic Raikkonen.

  3. Ante
    25th March 2017, 17:09

    Obviously, for sure!

  4. David Bell
    25th March 2017, 21:19

    Not the best picture to use, nothing is in focus :D

Comments are closed.