Kimi Raikkonen frustrated after mistake in Q3 leaves him fourth

 

Kimi Raikkonen “paid the price” for a mistake in Q3 that left him in fourth place on the grid in Montreal, a fortnight after his Monaco pole.

The Finn was fastest on Friday, but he struggled to make the most of the tires. He ended up almost half a second down on Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel in second.

“I think there was a lot of speed on the last lap, but I made a mistake in corner two,” he said when about his session. “I improved a little bit, but I couldn’t make the laps very good, and I paid the price for it. It was a little bit more tricky today than yesterday just to get a good feeling with the tires, but that’s how it goes.”

Raikkonen said he was not surprised by the significant gap to his teammate.

“You get it right or wrong, at places like this, if you get one corner wrong, you’re going to lose massive lap time," Raikkonen said. "Not a big surprise."

“I think our car had been good, but for whatever reason we’ve struggled a bit in qualifying," he addd. "But I think in the race it will be a different story.”

Raikkonen conceded that the often mixed-up nature of Montreal races, with frequent safety car interventions, could give him a chance to make amends for his Monaco disappointment.

“It’s a new race, we’ll try again, we’ll see what happens. Often it’s quite a hectic race here, a lot of things happen," Raikkonen said. "You never know here, it’s one of those places things change quite quickly. Let’s see how it is tomorrow, we’ll try to make the best of is as we can. We should have a good speed, so let’s see.”