Korean GP: Kimi Raikkonen admits driving mistake cost him

The Finn embarked on his hot lap during the final moments of Q3 and looked poised to set a good time after posting personal bests in the first two sectors before things went awry.

Raikkonen's problems began when he locked up on entry to Turn 10, which caused him to run wide and miss the apex. That was also the case at Turn 12 at which point he decided to abort his lap.

"I made a mistake so I knew the lap was gone," he admitted. "That's the way it goes sometimes."

Both Lotus cars have shown good pace all weekend which has been attributed to the longer-wheelbase car being kinder to the tyres over a long run, something Raikkonen sees as a positive heading into Sunday's race.

"I expect we will be a bit better tomorrow, better than the last race anyway, where I was struggling with the front-end the whole weekend."

Team-mate Romain Grosjean posted a time 1.3s quicker and lines up third for the race after benefiting from Mark Webber's 10-place grid penalty.

"It was very good to be P4," said the Frenchman. "Obviously gaining a position is not the way you would like it, but rules are rules and it is positive to start from the clean side of the track."

He too feels the recent alterations to the E21 will pay dividends in the grand prix.

"The race is going to be long and it will be interesting with the tyre degradation, but we'll try and go for the best result we can, which I think is possible with the car at the moment."