After a frustrating Friday in which Ferrari has struggled for grip and been sliding all over the seven kilometre Spa-Francorchamps circuit in free practice, Saturday saw a marked turnaround in form for the team as it successfully locked out the second row of the grid in qualifying.
"Everything went as planned," Kimi Raikkonen said afterwards. "It’s nice to be so close but obviously we’d rather be on pole position.
"For sure we had a chance to put it on pole and it would have been easier without going off in the first run [at Stavelot at the start of Q3] but that’s how it goes.
"It would been easier without the first off, because that lap was also very good. On the last lap I lost 0.2s compared to my lap in Q2.
"I felt we had a good chance but I lost time in the last chicane. Is it the conditions? It’s very hard with these conditions for the tyres, but for everybody.
"I don’t know. If we knew it would be much easier to be in these positions all the time. Things have changed quite a few times this year, depending on circuits and conditions."
Having set earlier times on soft compound tyres, Raikkonen and his team mate Sebastian Vettel both aborted late runs on supersofts at the end of Q2. But Raikkonen insisted that this had all been part of the strategy to ensure they would progress to Q3. As a result the Ferraris will both start on the more durable tyres, as will Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo.
"I don’t think tyres won’t make a big difference at the start. As long as we make a proper start we should be okay," he said.
"Who knows what will happen in the first corner? It’s a normal race and we’ll see what happens. We’ll try to make a good start and go from there.
"The start and the first laps are always very important. It won’t decide out race though, it will be quite a tricky race for everybody because of the tyres in these conditions. Hopefully we’ll make the right choices when the time will come, but we’ll see what happens."
QUALIFYING REPORT: Rosberg edges Verstappen and Raikkonen for pole
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