Kimi Raikkonen is hopeful his qualifying gamble will pay off in the Bahrain Grand Prix after deciding to save tires for the race.
The Lotus driver opted to do just one run during the second qualifying segment in order to have more fresh sets of tires for tomorrow. He qualified in 11th position. Raikkonen said he could have made it to Q3 easily had he used another set of tires, but he is optimistic the decision will prove to be the right one on Sunday.
"We took the risk to try to save one set of tires and didn't go out afterwards when we could easily get in [to Q3]," said Raikkonen. "We thought it was worth it to save the tires, so we'll see what happens."
The Finn admitted the tire situation in Bahrain will be hard to handle in the race.
"It will be more difficult [with tires] here than it was in China, but I think everybody has the same issues. That's one of the reasons why we didn't go through [to Q3], but hopefully it will pay off tomorrow."