Singapore GP | Raikkonen: "Time differences get big very quickly with difficulties"
Kimi Raikkonen qualified in 5th, which is not an idyllic result in Singapore but the Finn is braced for a 'tough and hectic race'.
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Kimi Raikkonen qualified in P5, starting behind his teammate Sebastian Vettel on the Singapore grid. The Finn believes he will be able to recover and bounce back from today's glitches, as he is expecting an eventful race given that Marina Bay holds a 100% Safety Car rate.
“This qualifying was a bit more tricky than we expected”, Kimi told the media. “In general, we struggled to ‘switch on’ the tyres straightaway and make them work as easily as it had been all weekend; so I was a bit surprised."
The HS seems to give a great deal of headaches to the top 10 qualifiers, as it is going to be the starting tyre, which is most likely to imply a two-stopper using one more set of the pink-banded tyre until the flag.
"Things can change quickly from practice to qualifying, that’s why there’s no reason to look at the lap times in practice, especially in places like this. The end result obviously is not great; this is the kind of circuit where if you get everything right your lap can be very good, but if you have some difficulties, the time difference gets big very quickly."
Ferrari looks stronger on the race pace, despite having come far off Hamilton today (Raikkonen was nearly 0.8s slower). Kimi will try and capitalise on any opportunities he gets hold of, including the infamous, first-corner mayhem. "Tomorrow will be a long day, everybody seems to be quite close to each other; it will be a long, tough and hectic race, and usually many things happen here. We’ll try to make the right decisions and the right calls”.
“This qualifying was a bit more tricky than we expected”, Kimi told the media. “In general, we struggled to ‘switch on’ the tyres straightaway and make them work as easily as it had been all weekend; so I was a bit surprised."
The HS seems to give a great deal of headaches to the top 10 qualifiers, as it is going to be the starting tyre, which is most likely to imply a two-stopper using one more set of the pink-banded tyre until the flag.
"Things can change quickly from practice to qualifying, that’s why there’s no reason to look at the lap times in practice, especially in places like this. The end result obviously is not great; this is the kind of circuit where if you get everything right your lap can be very good, but if you have some difficulties, the time difference gets big very quickly."
Ferrari looks stronger on the race pace, despite having come far off Hamilton today (Raikkonen was nearly 0.8s slower). Kimi will try and capitalise on any opportunities he gets hold of, including the infamous, first-corner mayhem. "Tomorrow will be a long day, everybody seems to be quite close to each other; it will be a long, tough and hectic race, and usually many things happen here. We’ll try to make the right decisions and the right calls”.