Q & A with Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen: I would say it was my fault really. I went off on the last lap, and I don't know how much I lost but it certainly didn't help. My first lap also was not very nice.

The car wasn't too bad today but I couldn't get any real laps - it didn't really come together. For sure there is much more in the car, but it didn't happen today.

Q. Do you think you can extract this potential tomorrow in the race, because the track is likely to be different?

KR: Yeah, I know that is the usual problem. Usually the car works better for me in the race, and the main problem is to get the one lap out. Even on used tyres the car feels very nice, so in the race the car should be fine. The problem here is to get past, and it isn't easy to overtake - if the guy in front doesn't make any mistakes there is no way to get around him. That is the only issue but we will see what we can do.

Q. What is your possibility of getting a decent haul of points tomorrow?

KR: We don't know what is going to happen, but you never know in the races. We will just do our best, but here especially it is so hard to get past anybody. Let's wait and see tomorrow.

Q. It seems to be very difficult for you to get a good set-up at the last two races. What is going on?

KR: I don't know. For sure it hasn't been easy for us, but today the car wasn't really bad. I went off and I couldn't stay on the circuit - so that doesn't help. I lost time and that is really it. That is life, and we try to do better next time. For sure one day we will get it back, and hopefully it is not too late.

Q. Are you optimistic for the race?

KR: Yes. We have a good car, but the problem is trying to get past everybody. So that is the biggest difficulty.

Q. Can you give us an insight into your feelings - are you angry with yourself, or are you just disappointed that Lewis is on pole again?

KR: I don't care who is on pole if it isn't me. I am disappointed for sure, but this is not the end of my life. It is not the first time, and it is not going to help us in the championship, but these things happen sometimes. Hopefully we can improve those things, get it back together and get some good results.

Q. It has been said that in hot weather Ferrari should be in front. What is different here?

KR: The car is good here, it has been quick here, but I haven't been able to get it where I want it to be. That has been the difficulty.

Q. Unless you pass a lot of cars tomorrow, the chances are you will be more than 10 points behind the championship leader. Do you feel your title challenge is falling away?

KR: Definitely it is not helping. But there is not anything I can do right now. It was my mistake, but hopefully we can get it back together very soon and try to catch up.

Q. All day, Felipe has been faster than you. How do you explain that?

KR: In the morning I wasn't too happy with the car. Qualifying wasn't too bad but I couldn't really get the lap together. For sure that makes a big difference.

Q. Do you think McLaren has improved or just Ferrari have stopped making progress?

KR: Why don't you go and ask them? For sure we have improved the car a bit, but it is always difficult to say if they have made more progress than us. We are definitely trying to improve things as we go forward and be better than them, but we will see tomorrow with the fuel levels who is really fast.