Raikkonen: It was more tricky than we expected

Last year Raikkonen was eliminated a little less than 100-metres from the start when he, Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen came together in spectacular fashion seconds after the red lights turned dark.

Raikkonen is braced for Sunday's race at the demanding at Marina Bay Circuit, "Everybody seems to be quite close to each other so it will be quite a hectic race. Obviously, a lot of things usually happen here so we will try to make the right decisions and go from there.”

After topping the timing sheets at the end of FP3, a couple of hours earlier neither he or teammate Sebastian Vettel found the sweet spot during qualifying.

The German was third fastest, a tenth and a bit faster than the veteran Finn. They underdelivered on a night on which pole was theirs to lose, and they lost it.

Raikkonen acknowledged, "Obviously, we finished fifth so, for sure, it was more tricky than we expected but this what often happens in qualifying."

"In general, we struggled to ‘switch on’ the tyres straightaway and make them work as easily as it had been all weekend; so I was a bit surprised."

"Practice is always different so this is why it is pointless to look at lap times in practice really. Things change quickly, especially in a place like this.”

“It wasn’t too bad anywhere, but it was, for sure, more difficult to make the tyres work as we wanted in qualifying compared to any other point of this weekend,” added Raikkonen who has never won the Singapore Grand Prix.