Raikkonen hails 'step forward' in Sochi

Kimi Raikkonen was on the podium for the first time in 2017 this weekend, claiming third place on the Russian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen has been in the top five in every race so far this season. Closing the gap to his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel was vital this weekend, but the Finn had been hoping for even better.

"It feels good and I'm happy to be on the podium. But obviously we wanted more and we wanted to be in front," he said after the race.

"This weekend for sure has been a step forward," he acknowledged. "We've been more happy with how the things have been running. But we still only finished third."

Getting beaten into turn 1 by Valtteri Bottas proved pivotal to how the race unfolded.

"I'm disappointed to lose a place at the start instead of gaining one," Raikkonen said. "The race was decided at the start and I had a pretty bad one.

"I thought I was losing a lot, but I managed to get the position back and stay there," he continued. "Not an awful lot happened after that.

"Obviously we've got a better result than the last race but I feel there was really a chance to do better."

Brilliant start hands Bottas maiden GP win

Raikkonen said the progress shown by the team in Sochi proved that they were going in the right direction.

"Everything was I think over the whole weekend had been much better for myself and how we've been doing things, so I'm much happier.

"It's the small things that we have to do even better, and then Ferrari can be one-two more times."

"The small details have to be exactly there and then you will get the first place," he said. He pointed out that there was very little to separate himself and Vettel from their Mercedes counterparts at the moment.

"The four of us are close most of the time so it's the small difference that makes the big difference in the end."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Sunday in Sochi

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.