Raikkonen rues being narrowly pipped to Sochi pole

Sochi
© XPB 

Kimi Raikkonen could be forgiving if he had been thinking he was about to clinch his first Formula 1 pole position since France in 2008.

That's also the last time that Ferrari has a front-row lock-out in qualifying. Raikkonen shared the honours that day with then-team mate Felipe Massa.

The Finn had laid down an impressive opening lap of 1:33.253s in the final round of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix. But Sebastian Vettel went out for a second run and snatched pole away by just 0.059s.

Raikkonen's own final push wasn't enough to improve his time, and so he will start tomorrow's race from second place.

It's a painfully narrow margin to lose out by, but Raikkonen was still sounding upbeat. Or at least, as upbeat as he ever gets talking to the press in Sochi after qualifying.

"I'm happier than previous qualifyings," he said. "But we had all the tools to be in the front today.

"Feeling has been more better this weekend. We just got some traffic on our out lap in the last set and couldn't really make the tyres work as well as the first run.

"It was a bit more trickier. It [the last lap] was thereabouts and I just tried to get it back in the last corner, but obviously didn't pay off.

"Obviously one-two for the team is not bad, [but] the aim is to be in the front," Raikkonen admitted.

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi

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