Raikkonen: I was just not fast enough

The world champion has been focusing on improving his qualifying form after having qualified outside the front row in the last three races.

Things did not improve at Valencia on Saturday, however, with Raikkonen qualifying down in fourth, half a second behind Ferrari teammate and pole-setter Felipe Massa.

The Finn admitted his pace was simply not good enough.

"The lap wasn't probably what I wanted exactly, but I cannot change it any more," Raikkonen told reporters after qualifying.

"It wasn't very easy, but that is life. We are still in fourth place. It is not exactly what I wanted but I think we have a good pace for the race.

"I was slow and that was it. I don't need to start telling you what happened on the lap. We were not fast enough."

The Ferrari driver said he was not surprised by his lack of pace, following his problems in the last few races.

Despite that, Raikkonen is still hopeful he can improve his position in the race.

"It wasn't what we wanted today, so it wasn't exactly an improvement," he added. "That is nothing new - it hasn't been an easy qualifying for me this year. I am not surprised that it didn't go exactly the way we wanted.

"But of course I think we improved the situation but we are still not where we want to be yet. We try to do better again next time. It is not the end of the world, so we will see what we can do tomorrow in the race and go from there."