Raikkonen aims to keep momentum going

The Ferrari driver, winner of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, had not finished on the podium since the fourth round in Bahrain.

On Sunday, however, Raikkonen led a dominant Ferrari one-two to boost his chances of fighting for the title after a series of disappointing results.

The Finn, still 22 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, is now hoping to keep the momentum going.

"It is nice. I think we had a bit of a hard time but I kind of expected to have difficult times," said Raikkonen after the race.

"People always think that you have lost it when you don't have good results but we jut worked hard and tried to get it right and I think we can still improve.

"We are still not where we want to be but we are definitely much happier with the car since the last test, and in the last races, but we could not get it together. I think we seem to have good speed now so hopefully we can keep it up in the next races."

Raikkonen has started from third place, but made a good start to move ahead of Hamilton and then overtook teammate Felipe Massa during his second pitstop.

The Finn admitted his good start was crucial.

"Finally the start worked for me and it helped a lot," he said. "I think the car was good all the time, but not exactly perfect. I was happy with the car. I tried to push with Felipe before the first stop.

"I had some traffic and at the second stop I managed to go in front of him so it's a good day for me and the team.

"I could not ask for more, I would rather start from the front row as it makes life easier. I knew it all depends on the start and we had a pretty good one."