Raikkonen upset by Spanish mistake

Kimi Raikkonen was left cursing a second-corner mistake which denied him top spot in first qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona today.

It came as Jarno Trulli gave Toyota hope of their first-ever Formula One pole position.

McLaren driver Raikkonen claims he would have been easily the fastest driver had he not run wide early in his lap.

That slight error cost him valuable time and allowed Trulli to hold on to the fastest time.

Raikkonen was furious with himself for the mistake but goes into tomorrow’s crucial final qualifying – after which the times from both sessions are aggregated to establish the grid – determined to improve.

The Finn ended today’s session third fastest behind Trulli and home hero Fernando Alonso but has just 0.024 seconds to make up if he is to take pole.

Raikkonen said: “I am a bit disappointed because I ran wide on corner two. I lost quite a bit of time. The car seems to be quick, I am just not happy being in this place.

“I am not pleased really because I feel we should have been quite a bit quicker. Tomorrow anything can happen still. If you know that you have half a second to come it’s never a good thing. I think I lost half a second – it could have been better for tomorrow.”

Raikkonen has urged McLaren to fix the reliability problems which have hindered him in recent seasons.

The former Sauber driver has been denied several good results by mechanical failures, a run of bad luck which continued when he missed out on victory at Imola two weeks ago due to a driveshaft problem.

Raikkonen is frustrated and called on his team to get him to the end of the race tomorrow or risk ruining his world championship challenge.

He added: “We still need to finish the races. It doesn’t help if you put it on the pole or the top three – you don’t get points if you don’t finish. That’s the area we need to improve, at least we have the speed.

“The main thing is to score points. We desperately need to score more points than the other guys if we want to finish anywhere in the championship. But we are working hard.”

Trulli admitted he was stunned to end the session on top after experiencing set-up problems this morning.

The Italian confessed he was unable to push as hard as he would have liked and predicted a tough time tomorrow if he is to hold on to his slender advantage.

“I wasn’t able to attack like I normally do,” he said. “That’s why I am a bit surprised to be here. This morning we were struggling to get the grip back. Even on my qualifying lap I was not fully confident, I wasn’t really pushing as hard as I could.

“I did my best and did a good job. I am still not fully confident for tomorrow. Yesterday I looked pretty strong but after this morning I still have some question marks.”

Home favourite Alonso looked on course to pip Trulli but he fell just short to the disappointment of a 100,000 crowd who have flocked to the Circuit de Catalunya to watch Spain’s first world title contender chase a fourth consecutive win.

The Oviedo born 23-year-old was taken back by the reception, saying: “It was something special for me. It was probably my best lap in a Formula One car.

“Tomorrow we will have another one and then 66 laps of the race. Maybe 80% the grandstands were full – you feel it it is something amazing for sure.”

Ralf Schumacher gave Toyota two cars on the provisional front two rows by taking fourth while Nick Heidfeld was fifth.

It scarcely matters for the Williams driver though, who changed his BMW engine this morning and incurred a 10-place grid penalty. Team-mate Mark Webber was sixth.

World champion Michael Schumacher struggled over one lap in his Ferrari and finished seventh while Scotsman David Coulthard took his Red Bull to 10th.