Kimi Raikkonen says tyre inconsisties led to his struggles during qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and prevented him from extracting the full performance potential from his Ferrari.
Raikkonen had been quicker than Sebastian Vettel in final practice, but will start Sunday's season-ending race only fifth, after qualifying 0.7s adrift of Valtteri Bottas' pole lap and 0.2s behind his Ferrari teammate. Adding to his frustrations, the Finn was pipped to fourth by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in the final moments of Q3.
"I thought the car was very good but it was a bit tricky to get the tyres to work and be consistent," Raikkonen explained.