Kimi Raikkonen believes an inability to get Pirelli’s tyres working in their optimum window was behind his relative lack of pace during the qualifying shootout in Singapore.
Raikkonen led the way in Friday’s second practice session, finished second to Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel in FP3, and topped Q2 at Marina Bay.
But an underwhelming opening effort in Q3 set the tone and while Raikkonen improved on his second attempt he was left down in fifth position.
“Well obviously we finished fifth so I think it was more tricky than we expected,” he said.
“But then this is what can often happen between qualifying and practice, it is always different, so that is why it is pointless to look at lap times in practice.
“A lot of things change quickly especially at this place.
“[The car] wasn’t too bad anywhere for me it was more difficult to make the tyres work as we wanted in qualifying compared to any other point this weekend.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s 61-lap Grand Prix, Raikkonen added: “Obviously everybody seems to be pretty close to each other so it should be quite a hectic race.
“Things usually happen here so we will try to make the best of the situation.”
Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel will start from third, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fronting the grid.
