Raikkonen: 'Some places we were good, others we took a hit'

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In Saturday's qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen didn't seem able to extract the same performance out of the Ferrari SF16-H as his team mate Sebastian Vettel did, and while Vettel will start tomorrow from third place on the grid Raikkonen will have to find a way forward from sixth.

"We improved a lot from yesterday and it is just small things," he said afterwards. "Unfortunately here when you have a small issue before the straights, you take a big penalty in lap time. That is how it was in qualifying. There were some places we were very good and some where we took a hit.

"We struggled a bit in Turn 10," he explained. "We struggled to make the front turn well and in the entry we took the hit for that and in the exit. That was probably the biggest issue we had.

"The whole qualifying and we lost a lot of time there, a lot of time from locking. But there were good places and then certain places that we struggled the whole qualifying and gave a lot of lap time. So, not ideal, but that is how it was today."

The weather had also been an issue for all teams, with drivers struggling to get their tyres up to proper temperatures in time to make their qualifying runs in the chilly conditions in Montreal.

"Maybe it is not ideal, but I think everybody was doing prep laps, but this is where we end up and this is it. Tomorrow I am sure it will be better in the race. It is obviously not easy, but it is where we start."

While the rain largely stayed away on Saturday with only a few isolated sprinkles in qualifying, the possibility of rain in tomorrow's race is certainly a factor weighing on everyone's mind.

"For sure it is not an easy place for that, but it is the same for everybody. We just have to make the best out of it."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.