Ferrari's qualifying performance in Hockenheim has underlined once again the Scuderia's lack of pace, and P5 was the best Kimi Raikkonen could achieve.
The Finn ended the session one nearly two tenths ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel but had no real complaints to file over his Ferrari's performance with the exception that the SF16-H just isn't fast enough.
"The car was behaving pretty okay, I didn’t have any big issues," explained Raikkonen.
"On the last set of tyres I struggled a bit and I didn’t have the same good feeling I had with the previous one.
"We’re just not fast overall, we need to put more downforce in the car to go faster, but apart from that the handling was OK.
"It’s disappointing to be where we are, but this is how it is today. We’ll keep working and improving – that’s about it."
With Ferrari trailing Red Bull on the German grid, another tight battle could ensue between the red camp and its main rival.
"You never know how things are going to play out in the race. We try to make a good start and go from there. We just do our own thing and hopefully it play out well and we can improve the position."
Different tyre strategies should prevail among the teams at the head of the grid, but Raikkonen believes it execution will be just as important as choice.
"I don’t know what tyres the others have for the race, I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, we’ll go through that later on and tomorrow.
"Hopefully whatever we’ll do will be correct and we play it the right way. It won’t be easy to make up places but I fully believe we know what we’re doing and I think if the speed will be there tomorrow to challenge. So we’ll see where we end up."
REPORT: Impressive Rosberg takes pole for the German Grand Prix
LIVE: German Grand Prix weekend
Silbermann says ... Backing the wrong horse
Exclusive Alex Wurz Q&A: GPDA chairman "surprised" by Halo delay
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Sebastian Montoya, the 19-year-old son of former Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, is set…
When former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto took on the role of Chief Operating Officer…
Charles Leclerc concluded the 2024 F1 season with a sense of satisfaction, the Ferrari driver…
Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has voiced his dismay at FIA president Mohammed Ben…
Super Aguri's application to join Formula 1 became a reality on this day in 2005,…
Ferrari roared back into contention in 2024 to deliver their strongest season in years, thanks…