Kimi Raikkonen says he was “playing around with switches” when he span during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix which ended any hopes of making it through to Q3.
“I was just playing around with the switches or something and got a little bit of wheelspin and touched the wall,” he explained. “It was just one mistake. I just got a little bit of wheelspin. I wasn’t pushing anymore anyhow but just got wheelspin. I just couldn’t catch it.”
The Finn however doesn’t believe it made much of a difference as he’d already backed off, realising he didn’t have the speed to progress.
That didn’t change the fact that we would not have gone through anyhow,” he added.
“Qualifying wasn’t straightforward today, especially because of traffic. When I was on a quick lap, I had a car in front of me at every corner. That stopped me getting a clean lap and at the end of Q2, I spun off damaging the front wing. I don’t think I’d have gone quicker anyway, as I had already reduced my speed at this point, because I knew already I wouldn’t make it to Q3.”
Raikkonen isn’s sure what to expect during the race as conditions are expected to be similar to Saturday’s.
“Tomorrow’s race will be tough, the weather forecast is unclear and on top of that, with the new rules, it’s hard to predict how things will go. But it’s only the first race of the year and we will do our best to get a good result.”
