Raikkonen welcomes third after tough day

The Ferrari driver's weekend started with a gearbox problem on Friday and was followed by a disappointing qualifying, with the Finn starting from fourth place.

At the start of the race, Raikkonen made contact with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and completed the race with a damaged front wing.

Despite his problems, Raikkonen managed to fight for second, although eventually had to settle for the last step of the podium.

"I didn't have a very good start," he said. "I got alongside (Kovalainen) under braking and got inside and tried to slow down. He turned in a bit and we touched. I broke the front wing and he got a puncture. It is racing.

"We chose to use the front wing all race as it takes too long to change it. It was difficult weekend but at least we got some points."

Raikkonen said the damaged wing did not change the handling of the car much, but he admitted the situation was not ideal.

"It wasn't too bad, but it never helps if you damage the end of the wing," he added. "It's difficult to say how much better it would be with the proper wing but for sure it doesn't help you."

The world champion was left lamenting his problems in qualifying, but said he was happy with the result after losing just two points to McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton.

"I think it wasn't the best qualifying for me, and maybe our weakest point. We had a bit more fuel than the others, that is the reason (we were slow) but also the lap was not as good as we wanted. It all started on Friday when we had a problem.

"We had a difficult weekend and I'm happy to be third. I didn't lose too many points. We'll see what we can do in the next few races. The next two last year were not so strong for us, so we will see what we can do."