Miscommunication was to blame for Kimi Raikkonen's poor qualifying performance at the Austrian Grand Prix after the Finn qualified 18th in a car capable of making the front two rows.
Raikkonen was knocked out during a damp Q1 as the track conditions slowly improved over the course of the session. The Ferrari driver was sent out for three timed laps at the end of the session, but was under the understanding he could back off between quick laps, as is often the case when drivers are looking to improve in changing conditions. However, that did not leave enough time to complete a final flying lap and Raikkonen's 1:12.867 proved over 0.3s too slow to gain a place in Q2.
Raikkonen claims he was not told that the plan had changed and he would not have enough time to complete three timed laps with cool down laps in between.
"[I was told] that we have three timed laps and obviously they noticed at some point that we went out too late and I was not going to have three timed laps, but I was never told. I was doing a normal plan and obviously it made a big difference," the Finn said.
"It was wrong. I was doing the same thing that I was doing when I went out and I never got the information that it was not possible to do what was the original plan and obviously we missed the one lap completely. I was thinking that I was doing the normal thing and I was not told that the plan had changed suddenly. They sent me out too late, we missed one lap and it obviously cost a lot."
Raikkonen said his only hope for a good result on Sunday is to stay out of trouble on the first lap and then make the most of the Ferrari's pace thereafter.
"Obviously it was not ideal. We should be much higher up and I'm sure we could have fought at the front, but we tried to do our best and obviously it's not an ideal starting place. Yes, there are long straights but also there are very tricky corners to be in the middle of the pack, so we have much bigger chances to have that happening in the first few corners, so you try to stay clear of all the s*** in the first lap and then I guess we should have speed, but you never know what will happen in the race. We will do our best and see where we end up."