Kimi Raikkonen says a surprise bout of understeer was to blame for his mistake on his final push lap during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen had been a contender for the leading positions throughout the session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and occupied third spot after the first runs, while Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel held provisional pole.
But Raikkonen drifted wide through Turn 2 at the start of his final effort and abandoned his lap, while improvements from rivals relegated the Finn to fifth on the grid.
“On my last try in Q3, I suddenly had a lot of understeer entering Turn 2, I struggled to turn the car round,” said Raikkonen.
“At that point I had no choice but to try and get out of it as quickly as possible, but obviously I was off the line and my lap finished there.
“What happened was a bit odd, my car had been working well all day. I’m sure there was more to come today, and the end result is not what we were looking for.
“Tomorrow is a different day though, we’ll see what happens. For sure it will be tricky, with different tyres on different cars in the front.
“It’s difficult to have a clear picture of how it will pan out, but we believe we made the right choice for the start of the race,” he added, referring to Ferrari’s decision to start on Ultrasofts.
Ferrari team-mate Vettel went on to secure pole position, his fourth of the season.
