Qualifying held me back, says Raikkonen
Kimi Raikkonen believes a poor qualifying performance cost him the chance of fighting for victory in Sunday's German Grand Prix.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: July 23, 2012 12:56 AM IST
Kimi Raikkonen believes a poor qualifying performance cost him the chance of fighting for victory in Sunday's German Grand Prix.
The Finn, who qualified 10th, initially finished fourth for Lotus, but was elevated to third after second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was demoted to fifth for illegally overtaking McLaren driver Jenson Button.
The 2007 champion said he was pleased with his performance, but believes he could have challenged the leaders for victory had he qualified in a better position.
"It's nice to have another podium, but obviously we would rather get it on the track," said Raikkonen. "Having said that, I think we did the best we could today from the position we started in.
"Maybe if we had found a bit more pace in the wet yesterday, we could have started higher, avoided the traffic and pushed the leaders, but it is what it is.
"We were hoping for a bit better, but the car worked well all through the race and we still brought home some good points for the team so there are some positives to take to the next race."
Nonetheless, Raikkonen, now fourth in the drivers' standings with 98 points, said he was satisfied with his position.
"If you had told me in January that we would be fourth halfway through the season, I think I would have been pretty pleased," he said.
"It's not a bad place to be, but I think we have a car good enough to have scored more points.
"I want to win and the whole team is pushing hard to make it happen, so let's see what we can do in the second half of the season..."