Kimi Räikkönen says third place on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is “not a disaster”, despite his large deficit to pole sitter Lewis Hamilton.
Räikkönen finished 1.100s behind Hamilton during qualifying at the Baku City Circuit but emerged as the lead non-Mercedes driver, edging Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Räikkönen pointed to the difficulty of warming up Pirelli’s Supersoft tyre over one-lap as the biggest challenge, believing Ferrari can mount a closer challenge in race trim.
“The whole weekend has been about making the tyres work well and today we struggled a bit more than yesterday,” said Räikkönen.
“If you can get them working 100 per cent on one lap you can easily go a lot faster, but it was not the case today.
“When we were able to switch the tyres on, the car felt nice, but this feeling kept changing from lap to lap and from set to set.
“I did not feel comfortable going into the first corner and could not push so hard.
“It was easy to slide or make a small mistake. It was always on the edge of working and not working, but on the last lap it felt a bit better.
“Third place is obviously not a disaster, I take it happily. I think we did the best we could achieve today.
“In the race, with more laps, the tyres should start working better. I’m positive that we are going to be a lot closer to our competitors.”
Vettel will line up from fourth place on the grid.
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