Raikkonen: Qualifying mistake “very painful and frustrating”

Kimi Raikkonen had pole position well within his grasp yesterday until a costly mistake at turn 16 cost him over a second and first position.

The Finn lines up sixth for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and he reflected yesterday on the mistake he made in the dying embers of qualifying.

“In Q3, on my last run I had a lot of speed and the feeling with the car was really good; I knew I had a very good lap going.

“Entering the last corner I took it very easily because over the weekend the wind has been quite tricky there. But for whatever reason I got a massive snap exiting the corner and went sideways.

“I was able to get the car back but the lap was gone. I’m pretty sure that without that mistake I would have been in a much better position.

“It’s very painful and frustrating to mess it up in the last corner like that, I’m very disappointed. Unfortunately with the mistake we are not in a very good position for the race.

“Today it did not pay off, but tomorrow is another day and we’ll do our best”.