Raikkonen asks for 'work to be done' after latest Q3 blip

Kimi Raikkonen has acknowledged a repeat issue is occurring during his qualifying performances this season for Ferrari as he suffered another drop off in Q3 to qualify down in sixth place for the French Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver struggled to put a lap together on his opening Q3 flying lap, following the red flag triggered by Romain Grosjean’s crash at the start of the session, which meant he lost out to both Mercedes and Red Bulls plus teammate Sebastian Vettel to qualify in sixth place.

With speculation growing around his position at Ferrari, while the Italian manufacturer’s protégé Charles Leclerc continued to star by qualifying eighth for Alfa Romeo Sauber, Raikkonen concedes his continued problems in the final stage of qualifying need to be addressed.

“In the beginning of the year it seemed to be pretty straightforward and now we struggle in the last qualifying sessions,” Raikkonen said. “We have some work to be done on that side.

“But it’s not like you are driving well and then, suddenly, you lose it between two sessions. You know, it’s just a lot of things that aren’t going our way.

“I think it was pretty straightforward [in France] until Q3 and the first lap was pretty good until Turn 11 and then I got a bit sideways. Maybe there was some drops of rain there and it was because of that. Then, obviously, the last lap was just a mess all over.

“This is what you get when you never put a lap together in the end but until that point it was pretty good. But it’s pretty disappointing.”

Raikkonen has suffered similar Q3 issues for Ferrari this year in Baku and Canada when a positive opening two sessions fighting towards the front of the times was followed by a drop off during the pole position shootout.