Kimi Raikkonen confessed he could have pushed harder than he did on his final Q3 lap after qualifying fourth for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
While team-mate Sebastian Vettel split the Mercedes drivers in second Raikkonen had to settle for a place on the second row despite looking strong all weekend. Vettel found three tenths on his final run but Raikkonen says he could have dragged more from his car.
"There was more grip than I expected, afterwards its easy to say I could have pushed a bit harder in certain places but I wasn't sure," Raikkonen said. "But the car was OK and the lap wasn't too bad, maybe, I just ran a little wide in one corner but it wouldn't have cost a lot of lap time. I could have pushed more in certain places because it was surprisingly good grip."
Mercedes has been concerned with Ferrari's long run pace all weekend but Raikkonen refused to make any bold statements ahead of the race.
"We will find out tomorrow, obviously it depends a lot on our first laps but at least we are a bit further up so hopefully we make a good start and go from there. You never know what's going to happen in a race so we have to do the best and hopefully we will be up there."
It is the first time Raikkonen will start on the front two rows of the grid since the 2013 German Grand Prix and he thinks it gives him a great opportunity for a strong result.
"It gives you a better chance for a more easy life tomorrow as long as we make a good start out of it. Obviously then the race can turn out to be different because of that, but the aim is to be at the front, it doesn't matter if its qualifying or the race, there's still plenty to improve. But I'd take this rather than fifth or sixth place. I'm kind of happy because there's no really big issues but still you want to be in the front so we will see tomorrow what we can do."