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Formula 1 Spanish GP
Raikkonen needs to "drive better" after qualifying "mess"
Kimi Raikkonen says he needs to drive better after making "a mess" of his Spanish Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying session.
Lawrence Barretto
Edited: May 13, 2017, 4:31 PM
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The Finn outpaced his teammate Sebastian Vettel in all three practice sessions in Spain, including topping the latter, but made a series of "small mistakes" when it counted in qualifying.
Raikkonen felt pole was possible but ended up fourth quickest, 0.290s off the pace of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton, who pipped Vettel by just 0.051s.
"[I need to] drive better - don't make those mistakes," said Raikkonen. "I struggled for whatever reason to put a decent lap, all the corners together in qualifying.
"I thought I had a lot of speed but I never really managed to make a good lap out of it. I ran wide already in Turn 1, but I managed to get out of it and I was still fast.
"Then in Turn 4 and 5 I just ran really wide and lost quite a bit of laptime there. Without those [mistakes] there was, for sure, enough laptime to challenge for the first place.
"It's a bit disappointing to make a mess out of it but we'll try tomorrow."
Despite missing out on a first pole in nine years - the French Grand Prix in 2008 was his last - Raikkonen is encouraged by Ferrari's pace and the performance of its Barcelona upgrade.
"Definitely we are close," said Raikkonen. "The car has been good. We have done our own stuff [update] – we have no control over what the others are doing.
"We have a solid package that we try to improve and bring small things here and there. Sometimes when it looks a lot different it doesn't mean you are one second faster.
"We've been quite happy with where we've been, especially with these conditions - usually it's not our strongest point so it was a good result today."
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