'Not good enough': Raikkonen disappointed after losing F1 pole

Kimi Raikkonen said his performance in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix was “not good enough” after narrowly missing out on pole position to Ferrari Formula 1 teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final stages of the session.

Raikkonen sat on provisional pole after all drivers had completed their first runs in Q3, only for a slow final sector on his second lap to give Vettel the chance to snatch pole away.

Vettel grabbed P1 by just 0.087 seconds from Raikkonen, denying the Finn his first pole in China and first since last year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“It was OK, but not good enough. It’s not exactly what I wanted,” Raikkonen said of his display in qualifying.

“We’ll go again tomorrow and see what we can do. We’ll try to improve. It’s going to be a long race. We’ll try to stay out of any issues and then see how it goes.”

Raikkonen said that he made no “big mistake” on his final Q3 lap despite losing time through the final sector, with his attention now turning to Sunday’s race.

“First of all we need to make sure that we can run a trouble-free race, and then we need to see how it pans out, as it’s a long race,” Raikkonen said.

“We know what we’re going to do between ourselves, but the start will be a big part of it.

“We’ll see how it pans out, what the race brings. We need to make the best out of it.”