Chinese Grand Prix – Kimi Raikkonen said he struggled with understeer during Q3 which left him fourth on the grid.
The Finn did an extra run in Q2 and went fastest, breaking Michael Schumacher’s 2004 lap record in the process.
But when Raikkonen went into Q3, he was left with a car that was suddenly out of balance and was having to double check with the team that no settings had been changed.
“I’m not that surprised from the result after a strong performance in Q2,” he said.
“In the end I was struggling a bit with the front end, especially in the first corners; in Turn 3 there was not much we could gain.
“It has been tricky to get everything right, with the limited running we had yesterday, and we’re still not 100 per cent where we want to be, up there in front.
“There are some details in the set-up that need to be improved, and as you push more they become more apparent, but it’s already better than in Melbourne.
“Handling-wise the car wasn’t bad, even though I had experienced understeer in the beginning and then, for whatever reason, it changed to oversteer.”
With rain forecast for Sunday, Raikkonen predicted that the conditions could leave a lot of teams guessing.
“Conditions will be different for tomorrow and there will be a bit of guessing for everyone if it rains, so we’ll see.”
