Raikkonen: How the f*ck did that happen?

Kimi Raikkonen was the big scalp who failed to make it beyond Q1 and is blaming a bad and apparently confusing call from the Ferrari pitwall which forced him out early in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

When informed that he had failed to make the cut, Raikkonen made no bones about how he felt as he came on the radio querying: "How the f*ck did that happen?"

Annoyed Raikkonen tried to explain to media afterwards, "I got some information and obviously it was wrong. I was doing the same thing I had been told when I was out. I never got the information that what was first the plan is now not possible and obviously we missed the lap completely."

"The information I had was three laps and they noticed we went out too late at some point and we were not going to have three timed laps. I was doing the normal thing and I was told that the plan had changed suddenly. The point is they sent me out too late, we missed the one lap and obviously it cost us a lot," continued the Finn.

And added, "I did the plan as I was told. There was a mistake at some point. The plan changed but I was never told."

Raikkonen had been at the sharp end of proceedings at Red Bull Ring all weekend, and the early shower is a no doubt a big downer as he was also expected to be vying for a podium finish with a car that is only bettered by Mercedes. His Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel qualified third.

"Obviously it is not ideal, we should be much higher up," conceded the 2007 F1 world champion. "We should be fighting at the front, but we'll try to do our best. Yes there are long straights but also two tricky corners to be in the middle of the pack so you have much bigger chances of something happening in first two corners."

As for his battle plan on race day, Raikkonen said, "You try to stay clear of all the shit in the first lap and then I guess we should have speed but you never know what happens in the race. We'll do our best and see where we end up."

"More or less until this point, it has been a pretty good weekend. The car is handling well. I'm sure we can do a good job," concluded Raikkonen.