Raikkonen confident about bouncing back

Sakhir, Bahrain: World champion Kimi Raikkonen is confident of overcoming his poor qualifying session in time for today's Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Finnish pilot was more than three-tenths of a second behind pole-winner Robert Kubica Saturday to finish with a lap time of 1 minute, 33.418. Raikkonen sits fourth on the starting grid behind teammate Felipe Massa and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

"I think that tomorrow in the race, when points are up for grabs, I will be very strong," Raikkonen said. "I think we might have made different choices in terms of strategy, but let's wait and see in the race if that's really the case." Ferrari's dip at the third qualifying session was curious considering Massa and Raikkonen finished 1-2 in both of Friday's free practice sessions. Raikkonen was coming off a win at the Malaysian GP.

"Better to wait until tomorrow before drawing conclusions," team manager Luca Baldisserri said. "We know our car is very good over a long run and we must try and get the most out of it if we want to be ahead of our rivals."

Ferrari hold one advantage over rivals McLaren and BMW Sauber: they know the Bahrain International Circuit better than both teams.