Kimi Raikkonen admits Ferrari is now going to need a big slice of luck in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix if it is to beat McLaren to third in the constructors’ championship after failing to make Q3.
The recently-deposed world champion team had been expecting a fight to make the top 10 in qualifying after struggling during practice and those fears manifested themselves on Saturday evening, Giancarlo Fisichella setting the slowest time of all and Raikkonen just missing out in 11th.
Meanwhile rival McLaren, which leads it by a point in the constructors’ standings, claimed a commanding pole position with Lewis Hamilton.
Raikkonen says he couldn’t have got any more out of the F60 over a single lap and, although he is optimistic the car will again prove more competitive over the longer race distance, is not expecting progress to be easy.
“Today we got the most out of the car, but we did not have the necessary performance to make it into Q3,” he said after his final qualifying session for Ferrari.
“Already yesterday, we realized that it would be tough, so this result is definitely not a surprise.
“Tomorrow, we will try to do our best, but it’s certainly not going to be an easy race, even though we should definitely be more competitive in the race than in qualifying.”
The Finn admits the one positive of qualifying 11th is that he is the first driver to select his fuel load, but even with that bonus he acknowledges beating McLaren to third will be very tough given the Woking squad’s form here.
“What I can say is that 11th place is better than 10th, given that I will start from the clean side of the track and can choose the ideal fuel load,” Raikkonen said.
“It will be hard to get third in the constructors’, because the McLaren is very competitive. We will have to try and get some points and hope for a bit of luck.”
Giancarlo Fisichella’s quest to end his five-race stint as a Ferrari driver with a first points finish has all-but unravelled already after the veteran finished qualifying 0.2s adrift of the next slowest car.
The Italian said he was struggling with understeer through the slower final sector in particular and reiterated his disappointment with how his Ferrari stint had panned out.
“We knew it would be tough, but I don’t think we could have expected much more,” Fisichella said.
“In the first and second sectors I was reasonably competitive, but in the final one I had a lot of understeer.
“Tomorrow will be hard, but I know I can manage a strong pace: we will do our best to get a good result.
“I am disappointed not to have been able to do better in these races with Ferrari as it would be nice to reward the team that has had trust in me, by bringing them some points.
“It has not been easy adapting my driving style to a car that is particularly difficult to drive and at a time when, more and more, it felt the effects of the ending of its development programme.”