Kimi Raikkonen says he had the pace to beat Felipe Massa to fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix before his retirement.
The Finn had dropped to eighth at the start of the race after being caught up in an incident at Turn 1, but recovered to fifth on a two-stop strategy when a loose left rear wheel following his second stop caused him to retire. Having also had a slow first pit stop with the left rear, Raikkonen admits it is frustrating to have so many issues but he is happy with the pace Ferrari showed.
"We had an issue and the wheel didn’t go fully as it should, so it came loose," Raikkonen said."[At the start] I got hit by [Carlos] Sainz [Jr] on the rear wheel, the floor got damaged at the rear. I then got hit by the Sauber quite heavily so it damaged the front wing.
"We have done a very good job over the winter. It is disappointing not to finish, without the issues and damage we had in the car, we could have caught up with the Williams after the pit-stop. Too many things didn’t go our way today."
Explaining his two slow pit stops - the second which caused him to retire after he left the pits - Raikkonen says the first problem was partly down to him.
"The first one, I think they dropped the front, for some reason my finger slipped a bit and the rear wheels turned a bit and it was difficult to get the rear wheel on, but the second one I don’t know."
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