In Ferrari's case it was an embarrassing mistake that ruined Felipe Massa' qualifying session after a Q1 gamble spectacularly backfired.
The Brazilian and his race engineer Rob Smedley thought his one early flying lap on the harder compound rubber would be enough to safely see him through to the second stage – even though Massa lost time in the final sector when he ran over the kerb as he entered the long back straight.
But while Ferrari prepared Massa’s car for Q2 in the garage, over half of the field were in a scramble to ensure they weren’t knocked out and moved to the far faster softer tyres which had proved around a second quicker in practice.
Ferrari’s worst nightmare then played out as driver after driver posted a quicker time than him and, with the track picking up grip all of the time, Massa was shuffled below the cut line.
Indeed Raikkonen was lucky not to suffer the same fate as he walked the same tightrope, but his slightly faster sole flying lap meant he just stayed above the elimination line in 14th.