Raikkonen pleased with podium finish

Despite having started from sixth position, the Ferrari driver made his way through the field and finished 15 seconds behind race winner Rubens Barrichello in one of the Italian squad's strongest races this season.

Raikkonen admitted he had push hard during the whole race, given Ferrari is still behind its rivals in terms of pace.

"We needed to go 100 percent all the time," he said. "I had a good feeling with the car: from Friday it was working on the long stints and I was hoping it would be okay in the race. It turned out to be good.

"We know we are not where we need to be, we are a little behind but once we get the car running well, then usually we can fight for third if something weird happens in the race.

"It was a good weekend for me and I am happy to score a podium."

Raikkonen beat McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen to the final podium slot, after the pair had a hard fight in the middle part of the race.

"The first aim was to keep Rosberg behind, the car was very good, I could do exactly the same lap time (every time)," Raikkonen added. "I saw that I was catching him a bit, I had a little bit of traffic, so it cost some time.

"I put a few good laps when we came in and it was enough, the last stint was just to stay in third and the car was very nice to drive."