Things went ‘completely wrong’ for Kimi in qualy

Kimi Raikkonen gave a withering assessment of his day in qualifying, saying “a lot of small things went completely wrong” at Alfa Romeo.

The signs had been encouraging for the team in the morning, having looked solid in a wet free practice session on Saturday – with Raikkonen showing up in P7 and Antonio Giovinazzi behind in P11, giving hope they may have had a chance of progressing in qualifying.

But in changing weather and a rapidly improving track surface in qualifying, the drivers could not find the right balance and both ended up being knocked out in Q1 in a disappointing end to the day’s running, which will see the pair line up together on the ninth row.

Raikkonen had already encountered misfortune with his car this weekend when he had even more problems with his drink supply in practice, and the 2007 World Champion was not too impressed with how Saturday turned out.

“It was good in the wet conditions, but a lot of small things went completely wrong with qualifying,” the Finn told the official Formula 1 website.

“We got nothing, but finally when we had some grip, unfortunately there was a car in front but out of [our] control.”

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As for Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo team-mate, he also found the going tough on a drying circuit in Q1 – with several wet patches around the track catching him, and several others, out on occasion.

That said, Giovinazzi is still feeling optimistic about his chances, although he admitted the race will need to be “chaotic” for him and Raikkonen to make up lost ground at the start on Sunday.

“It was really tricky conditions,” said the Italian. “Most of the track was dry, but then we found some corners where there was some water and it was really tricky.

“I think our problem [was] we didn’t put it all together today in qualifying, and we are where we are, so we’ll see tomorrow.

“For sure, it’s another day. We’ll see the conditions, the weather, so I will say it’s not the end of the weekend.

“We’ll see tomorrow. For sure we want a chaotic race to gain some positions on lap one, then we’ll see what we can do in the race.”

Shocks and surprises in chaotic Turkey GP qualifying

A frantic qualifying session took place at the Turkish Grand Prix, with some surprising results.