Raikkonen: “Third place is what we expected today”

Kimi Raikkonen said he could have finished closer to the Mercedes drivers after returning to the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Raikkonen finished with his third podium of the season, finishing almost 20 seconds behind race winner Nico Rosberg. However the Finn insists that he could have been much closer if he had not been penalized by a late final stop.

“I think the whole year as a team was pretty good compared to last year, not so good for me,” Raikkonen said. “We were fast, we just weren't always able to produce results due to some problems and errors. This weekend was pretty ok, the car worked well.”

“I think in the race we could have been a little closer to the Mercedes, but in the final pitstop we had problems and lost some time. I slowed down a little at the end, but I think we had a reasonable speed. It's never good to finish third, but it's good after the previous races. You could always be in a better position but I think that's almost what we expected today."