As qualifying came to an end around the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen had secured the third fastest time of 1:41.693.
The Finn admitted that they were struggling more out there on Saturday afternoon then they were in free practice, with warming up the Pirelli rubber being the main issue.
However, that aid, he was more than hapy with the way his Ferrari was behaving when he managed to get the tyres just right.
Now it's on to Sunday where he is planning to be a lot closer to the two Mercedes in front of him and hopefully record a podium finish.
“The whole weekend has been about making the tires work well and today we struggled a bit more than yesterday. If you can get them working 100% on one lap you can easily go a lot faster, but it was not the case today. When we were able to switch the tires on, the car felt nice, but this feeling kept changing from lap to lap and from set to set,” he explained.
“I did not feel comfortable going into the first corner and could not push so hard. It was easy to slide or make a small mistake. It was always on the edge of working and not working, but on the last lap it felt a bit better.”
“Third place is obviously not a disaster, I take it happily. I think we did the best we could achieve today. In the race, with more laps, the tires should start working better. I'm positive that we are going to be a lot closer to our competitors.”
