A frustrating qualifying on Saturday meant that rather than challenging for pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen instead had to settle for fifth place on the grid for the race. A poor start when the lights went out added to the Finn's problems, but then everything changed when the two Mercedes cars ahead of him took each other out in turn 3.
"I had a poor start, just released the clutch and got worse grip and it was just impossible to recover from the wheelspin. Luckily I managed to go around the people in turn 3 and didn't lose so badly," Raikkonen explained.
A strategic decision to go for a two-stop strategy and make long runs on medium compound tyres resulted in Raikkonen finding himself running behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen from lap 44, with Raikkonen initially looking to have the upper hand in race pace over the youngster but not managing to press home his attack and pull off the pass for the lead.
"I think speed wise we were okay, I was able to catch the three cars in front of me. Then with Max I could close but I could not follow close enough or get a good enough exit at the last corner because I was so close. Obviously I gave my tyres a hard time trying to follow for so many laps.
"After yesterday if you'd offered us second we'd have taken it," he admitted. "But after what happened on the first lap with the Mercedes and all the rest, having the speed and not being able to challenge to make the pass it was not ideal."
Raikkonen added that he didn't begrudge Verstappen his historic, record-setting victory today even though he had very much wanted the win for himself and to put Ferrari back on top of the podium.
"Happy for him," insisted Raikkonen, who at 36 is now the oldest driver on the grid in 2016 in sharp contrast to Verstappen being the youngest.
"He's a good driver and he's in a good team now, so when it comes to the youngest and the oldest - happens to be like that, but I raced against his father so that's something a bit more scary!
"It's always disappointing when you don't win, but when you get this close and still don't win it's harder," he added. "I'll take the points and go the next race and try again.
"At least as Ferrari we got some points back to Mercedes."
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