Kimi Raikkonen cursed his luck after one of those days at the Spanish Grand Prix where even the tyre warmer turned up the heat on the Ferrari driver.

“So far the weekend has been more difficult than I wanted and today I was still struggling, for some reason my car was sliding around,” said the Finn.

The 2007 Formula One world champion, whose team-mate Sebastian Vettel qualified third, had decided on Friday night to revert to previous settings after failing to find the right balance.

“We knew it would be a risk and it might be difficult but I didn’t think that the result would have been as bad as it was today,” he said.

“It’s one of those weekends in which things keep going a little wrong here and there, and today we also lost one set of medium tyres because of the burning of a (warming) blanket.”

While Vettel was the closest to Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Raikkonen faces a difficult afternoon with two Toro Rosso cars and a Williams ahead of him.

“Obviously we start in a position that is not ideal, but we have a good package,” he said. “I’m sure we have the speed to have a good race.”