Kimi Raikkonen was his usual matter-of-fact self after qualifying eighth in Bahrain

Kimi Raikkonen was his usual matter-of-fact self when asked on Saturday why he had qualified down in eighth place for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, team-mate Romain Grosjean was left to lament a bout of procrastination that saw him fail to progress beyond Q2. The Frenchman said that indecision on the pitwall left him with time to complete only one flying lap. "We were helped by the car being very good on hard tyres, so Q1 was P4 and no problem," said Grosjean, who lines up 11th. "But we had a misunderstanding in Q2: they told me track evolution is not that big and I thought 'OK don't be too brave'. "What I mean by that is go early and keep some time to do a second run if you need. "It wasn't clear from the engineers; they weren't sure and didn't know what to do. Then we put on the medium tyres and went out but were slower than on hard tyres." Grosjean also said that the new chassis Lotus have given him this weekend had not solved the problems he has endured so far this season. "There was nothing wrong with (the old chassis). It was just good to change it, so it's out of your mind and it's good. But then yesterday we were nowhere in the pace and still having the same issues," he said. The 27-year-old explained that set-up changes overnight had helped but added that the problem, which boils down to an inability to manage his tyres consistently, will need time to fix. "I'm struggling. It's not easy. But as long as you don't lose you self-confidence it's all right. You just need to put things slowly in place," he added. "Q1 showed I'm there, I was quicker than Kimi."