Kimi Raikkonen s༒ays his hopes of securing🍎 a higher starting position for Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix were curtailed by getting too close to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

The Alfa Romeo driver was beginning his final run in Q3 on fresh tജyres when he misjudged how close he was to the back of the reigning world cha💫mpion’s car heading onto the start-finish straight.

It meant Raikkonen ♕ended up following Hamilton too closely throughout the tight and twisty opening sector, costing him performance as he lost downforce and grip.

“I never put any laps together,” Raikkon𒊎en admitted.

“Obviously I had one new set [of tyres] for the last lap, but we stru🌸ggled at the start of the lap because I got too close to the Mercedes. It’s shit, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.

“Everybody was trying to find the best position in the outlap and I just got too close to the Mercedes and that destroyed the start if🐷 my lap,” he added.

“It was pretty much done at that point. In the end, it wasn’t good at all. It’s disappointing but thatꦇ’s it. In traffic it’s tricky to d𝕴o a fast lap, we got too close and that’s it. It’s not a disaster.”

The Finn ended up with the ninth-fastest time after being out-qualified by Alfa Rome💦o teammate Antonio Giovinazzi for the first time this season.

However, Raikkonen will start Sunday’s race from eight﷽h with Giovinazzi dropping 10 ⛄places after changing power unit components on his C38.