F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Power unit issue cost better Q3 position - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen believes he is out of position on the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix after a power unit concern in qualifying.

With Ferrari having been quick this weekend, it was somewhat of a surprise when Raikkonen qualified sixth, just ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel but behind Nico Hulkenberg's Force India. Raikkonen says his team made good progress with his car overnight and expected to be competitive but an unusual feeling with his power unit hampered him in Q3.

"I felt my car was definitively better today, our qualifying lap times were better today," Raikkonen said. "Q1 was pretty OK, straightaway, we struggled a bit in Q2 to get the tyres to where we wanted them. The Soft tyre worked pretty OK but I lost a bit in the last corners.

"Then, in Q3, the first lap was pretty decent, but I felt I lost time in a few places. Then I had an odd feeling in the last run, we had some issue with power in the last set of tyres and could never use them. I feel there was a lot of lap time that we never got, because we didn’t use the second set of tyres.

"It was a bit of a struggle because I took it a bit easy in the first run of Q3, so I think the position we are in doesn’t show the lap time we could achieve. It was just unfortunate that it went like that."

With both Ferraris starting on the soft tyre on Sunday, Raikkonen is hopeful the team will resolve his power unit concern and be more competitive in the race.

"It depends a lot on the weather what the tyres will do. Obviously we wouldn’t have gone for this strategy if we didn’t think it was the right choice. As for the issue, the team is looking into it. I don’t know what’s the real situation.

"Right now I don’t feel [beating Vettel] gives anything, we struggled with the issue. I thought the car was pretty decent but with the small problem we had I couldn’t run and it cost us quite a few places. But this is how it is today and we have to go forward. Tomorrow I think we can be much stronger."

15 minutes with ... Nico Rosberg

Silbermann says ... Masked in Mexico

Chris Medland's 2016 Mexican Grand Prix preview

2017 driver line-ups so far

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Marko: ‘No chance at all’ for Red Bull in Las Vegas

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are unlikely to challenge for victory…

4 hours ago

GM revives bid to join F1 with accelerated talks for 2026 entry

Automotive giant General Motors is reportedly back in the game as a potential entrant in…

6 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

7 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

8 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

9 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

10 hours ago