Kimi Raikkonen shouldered the majority of the blame for "a silly mistake" in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix which has wrecked his hopes of maintaining his revival.

Raikkonen foolishly chose to rest on his laurels after setting a time in the initial 20-minute period of qualifying he felt would be good enough to see him into the top 15 at the Circuit de Catalunya.

But as Raikkonen sat in the garage after only completing five laps, his name slowly slipped down the timing screens until settling at 16, his worst grid slot since last year's Australian Grand Prix.

It again brought the Finn's mindset into question, in particular when just minutes later he was seen in the paddock eating an ice cream, seemingly without a care in the world.

Explaining himself, the 2007 world champion who ended Ferrari's points drought with sixth in Bahrain a fortnight ago, said: "I thought we were going to get through.

"It was maybe a bit tight on the time, but we didn't want to waste laps. In the end we didn't get through.

"It was a silly mistake because the car was much better here than before. But that's how it goes."

His apparent indifference was further underlined when he added: "I wasn't keen to go.

"I knew the lap wasn't very good, but I thought maybe we should still get through.

"In the end it doesn't matter whose mistake it was, it was just a silly mistake and we paid the price for it.

"I just didn't do a good lap. If I'd done a better lap we wouldn't be in this situation, but it's too late now."

It is a startling admission because if a driver knows he has not done a particularly decent job, he will do all he can to rectify that.

"The media can blame me if they want, I don't mind," added the 29-year-old in preparation for the criticism likely to come his way.

"It's a mistake and we can't take it away. We'll just try to do the best job we can tomorrow and try not to do the same at the next race."

Team-mate Felipe Massa underlined what might have been achieved as he set the best time in Q1 before going on to claim fourth overall.

Given what unfolded was a virtual mirror image of what happened to the Brazilian in Malaysia earlier this season, he is now demanding an end to the continual mistakes that undermine the team.

"It's quite bad for us," said Massa.

"It's not good to have one car up (the grid) and the other car down there.

"Making another mistake is a worry. We need to work and try not to make them. We don't need to repeat them."