Kimi Raikkonen is happy with his day’s work after taking pole position in Monaco – his first pole since the 2008 French Grand Prix 128 races ago.
Raikkonen secured pole by 43 thousandths of a second from teammate Vettel, who was only two thousandths faster than Valtteri Bottas.
Speaking to Autosport after qualifying, the Fin said he “happily” takes pole position, but isn’t taking the race win for granted.
“Obviously it is the best place to start tomorrow but doesn’t guarantee anything”.
“Nevertheless I will happily take it.
“All weekend has been quite OK. I have been struggling in certain places and working and trying to figure it out.
“Qualifying was better. Not inch perfect, but it was never going to be perfect, but good enough. I was very happy with the car.”
Sebastian Vettel was looking to take full advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s Q2 elimination and take his second Monaco pole, but admitted he pushed too hard in the final part of qualifying.
The German said: “The car was fine, really nice to drive but I probably pushed a bit too hard in Q3, went wide in turn five.”
“The second attempt went a bit deep so the second sector I was probably a bit too greedy.
“I wanted a bit too much and lost a little bit”.
The battle into the first corner may well be the deciding factor in tomorrow’s race. If Vettel gets ahead of Raikkonen, the Scuderia may well decide to impose team orders and allow the championship leader to extend the gap at the top of the standings.
