Kimi Raikkonen blames hairpin struggles for poor F1 qualifying

The Ferrari driver could only qualify sixth on the grid, 0.767s off pole, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel was third and just 0.178s slower than Lewis Hamilton's grid-topping time.

"We struggled a bit in Turn 10 through the whole qualifying," Raikkonen told reporters after the session.

"We lost a bit of time all the time with front [wheel] locking.

"We struggled to make the front turn very well at Turn 10 so in the entry we took a hit for that.

"That was probably the biggest issue we had, the rest wasn't too bad.

"There were good places [around the lap] and then certain places where we struggled, and you can give away a lot of laptime here.

"Unfortunately, here when you have a small issue before the straights you're going to take a big penalty on laptime and that's how it was in qualifying."

Raikkonen wasn't happy with his car during Friday practice, but he said Ferrari had made gains in the areas that were causing problems earlier in the weekend.

"We improved a lot from yesterday, just small things [still causing problems]," he added.

"Yesterday we struggled with many things, but today the car was a lot better.

"Tomorrow, I'm certain the car will be better in the race, but it's not easy from where we are starting."

Asked if he could feel the difference from Ferrari's turbo upgrade for this weekend, Raikkonen said: "It's very hard to say.

"It's very hard to pick up on the little differences in the car when you are testing things,

"It has to be a massive difference to say that you feel it."