Kimi Raikkonen says he is unsure what is possible from fifth position on the grid as Ferrari’s tough qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix was compounded by it losing out to Mercedes and Red Bull.
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Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only grab third place in qualifying on Saturday. “I had an issue with the suspension not working properly in practice which affected my braking – but we fixed that and in qualifying braking wasn’t a problem”.
Last year’s victor, Sebastian Vettel, was unhappy with his Ferrari’s set-up, at one point telling his team he could not control the rear of the auto and felt “like a passenger” as he slumped to fifth place, three-quarters of a second off Rosberg’s pace. “Obviously I was a bit annoyed because first we chose to go for another lap but it wasn’t really any quicker”. Red Bull will go longer on the SuperSofts at the start – but Nico will probably control the race from the front and make it hard to get by.
“We are a bit surprised we are the only ones (on that tire strategy)”, Ricciardo said.
“These things happen. I feel optimistic and good at this track”.
“It’s just not been my weekend so far”. “I haven’t been able to string them (laps) together. It is a street circuit and these are the ones I generally go really well on, so I am looking forward to tomorrow”. Force India’s Sergio Perez initially qualified 10th but received an eight-place grid penalty for setting his best time in the Q2 session while double-yellow caution flags were being waved following a crash into the barriers by Haas driver Sebastian Grosjean.
Rosberg hailed the lap as one of the best of his career and, by securing his 29th pole position at a circuit that offers minimal overtaking opportunities, the 31-year-old will be hopeful of securing his eighth victory of the season.
He paid credit to his team for being able to diagnose and overcome the problems that saw the team perform relatively poorly in qualifying here previous year.
“Of course there’s still the race but a year ago we were nowhere in qualifying, so it really shows the quality of the team to understand something like that and turn it around in such a way”.
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“Last year after the race when we had the situation of crisis we discussed it and we had the worry it would maybe drag on into Suzuka and the following races”.
