Kimi Raikkonen admits third place was the best he could hope for at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Finn got ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel early on after the German ran wide at Turn 4, then would be ushered in front of his teammate via a team order falling behind by stopping four laps later.
A strong battle would ensue to pass Valtteri Bottas for third, which he would achieve into Turn 1, but despite Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both nursing wounded cars, the Ferrari driver couldn’t close up and challenge for the win.
“We had good battles and the car was working well during the whole race,” Raikkonen said. “The speed was there and we had no particular issues.
“The first set of tyres was very good at the start and I was really happy, but then I destroyed them a little bit trying to pass the Mercedes.
“Once we changed the tyres the car was absolutely fine; we kind of knew that once we pitted we could have gone past them.
“After that, the behaviour of the car was still very good, but at that point, we were a bit too late [to challenge the leaders], as it had taken too long for us to get there [to third].”
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There were some questions as to whether Kimi had been disadvantaged by his strategy after losing enough time to come out behind Vettel, but the 2007 champion was typically unfussed.
“As for the strategy, we did what we thought was the best for us,” he added. “We can always debate many things, but today we made the best of it.
“Obviously it is not the greatest of results, but I don’t think we could have got more; we did not make any mistakes and fought hard.”
With Hamilton winning and Bottas fifth, it also ensured Mercedes secured the Constructors’ Championship for a fifth straight year.
“We knew that it would have been difficult; we did our best, but unfortunately it was not enough,” Raikkonen commented.