Kimi Raikkonen thinks Ferrari was performing at the best level it has been all weekend despite once again having to settle for the third row of the grid behind Red Bull in Germany.
Raikkonen out-qualified teammate Sebastian Vettel for fifth but both drivers failed to beat either Red Bull in the battle behind Mercedes. Raikkonen was three tenths behind Max Verstappen in fourth position and says the team simply does not have the pace.
"The car was behaving pretty OK, I didn't have any big issues," Raikkonen said. "On the last set of tyres I struggled a bit and I didn't have the same good feeling I had with the previous one.
"We're just not fast overall, we need to put more downforce in the car to go faster, but apart from that the handling was OK. It's disappointing to be where we are, but this is how it is today. We'll keep working and improving -- that's about it."
Raikkonen says the only thing Ferrari can do is continue working at finding more one-lap pace.
"I didn't really notice there was an awful lot of change from the first run to the last run. It was more difficult on the last set but overall the car was handling well. We just need to be faster around the lap.
"Unfortunately that's something we cannot change right now, but we keep trying. The car was as strong in qualifying as it has been all weekend, I think it was the best it had been. We tried but it wasn't enough."