Kimi Raikkonen says poor qualifying form could be down to tyres

The Finn has struggled for one-lap pace all season, failing to outqualify team-mate Sebastian Vettel at any of the six grands prix so far, and that has had a knock-on effect on his race results.

After Raikkonen started and finished sixth in Monaco, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivebene called on his charge to raise his game, adding he needs to do some qualifying "homework".

When asked if there was one area that was holding him back in qualifying, Raikkonen said: "I don't think there's the one.

"Obviously tyres is a big key to get them working in a proper way and that makes a massive difference.

"We just have to make a better job of it, drive better, do two or three good laps. I'm sure we'll get there but it seems to be a bit tricky.

"I know where we have to improve, nobody has to tell me, and it's a very easy thing to know.

"We put ourselves in a difficult position on many Saturdays, so when we improve that, we can have good speed in the race.

"When you're starting where you shouldn't, it obviously makes a very difficult race for us."

Asked whether a title challenge is still possible given his 66-point deficit to leader Lewis Hamilton, Raikkonen replied: "I don't think about the title.

"We try to go race-by-race and do the maximum and then obviously we can see at the end where we are.

"We know we still have work to do, to be where we want to be. We have improved a lot if you look at where we started.

"I think we have a correct way of doing things and the direction is right but there are still things to improve.

"We want better results as a team. It hasn't been such an easy start to the year, but we just have to tie up some things and make it work a bit better."