Kimi Raikkonen went from fourth on the grid to third at the flag in today’s Austrian Grand Prix, the Finn battling his way up the order in the closing stages to finish hot on the heels of second placed Max Verstappen.
The Ferrari driver never found himself lower the sixth all afternoon, and enjoyed a good scrap with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in the second half of the race, eventually inheriting a place on the podium following Nico Rosberg's last lap mishap.
Despite losing some track positions during a lengthy second stint on the SuperSoft tyre, Raikkonen , while a bit disappointed, recognized that there wasn't much to complain about for his 84th podium finish.
"The podium was a bit of a gift for us, but we'll take it with no complaints," Kimi said.
"We had pretty good speed from the beginning, trying to save the tyres a bit. It was a bit hard when I found myself in 6th after the pit stop, but the biggest issue was getting past the first Red Bull [of Ricciardo].
"After that the speed was good and perhaps without the yellow flags I could have gone after Max, but that's the way it goes.
"I'm perhaps bit disappointed but where we ended up given the first part of the race, but on the other hand it could have been a lot worse.
"Unfortunately, Sebastian had an issue so we could not have strong weekend as a team. We still have some things to work out."
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