Raikkonen: traffic "far from ideal"

The Iceman felt he was held up on his final run in qualifying in Bahrain.

Kimi Raikkonen was left to rue another disappointing qualifying session after his teammate Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position away from him in the final seconds.

The Finn looked to be in fine form all weekend and had laid down the marker after the first runs in final qualifying. Unfortunately for Raikkonen though, he felt he came across traffic that cost him time on his final lap.

“It was far from ideal with the traffic on the last lap,” he said. “I thought there was a lot we could improve, but it was a messy think, in the end. It’s disappointing, because it has been pretty okay for most of the weekend, you always want more.

“I don’t think it’s any different,” he said. “It’s just another car, we’re never side by side on the start because we’re second. Basically we’ll be in the same position but with another car compared to the previous time. It makes no difference.

Raikkonen lines up on the front row in second position ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo on row two.