Kimi Raikkonen says his Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying was spoiled by getting too close to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes Formula 1 car in Q3.
Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen got too strong a slipstream off Hamilton on the long straight as he began his final qualifying lap.
It meant he was left tucked right under the gearbox of the Mercedes for the tight opening section of the circuit – which cost him downforce and effectively wrecked his run.
He ended up slowest overall out of all the cars that took part in Q3, with his best time 0.644 seconds adrift of team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi.
Raikkonen will start eighth, thanks to Giovinazzi getting a grid penalty for taking an extra engine component and Charles Leclerc not running in Q3 following his Q2 crash.
“I didn’t put any laps together,” said Raikkonen. – “I had one new set [of tyres] and on the last one I tried to start the lap and got way too close to Mercedes. It was shit, but what can we do about it? It is disappointing.”
Kimi Raikkonen had left a gap to the Mercedes cars ahead of him on their warm up lap but was caught out when Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas slowed down at Turn 16 to give themselves some space.
“Everybody tried to find position on the out-lap and I got too close to the Mercedes as I was trying to start the lap,” Raikkonen added.
“It was really done before the first corner. It was disappointing.”
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