• Bahrain Grand Prix

Red Bull too strong for Lotus - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen: "I don't think we had the speed this week against Red Bull" © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Bahrain Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Kimi Räikkönen

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Kimi Raikkonen never felt as though he was in contention for victory with Sebastian Vettel at Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, saying his Lotus lacked pace to the Red Bull all weekend.

Raikkonen started eighth and finished second, 9.1s off Vettel, but was on a two-stop strategy rather than a three-stop and was unable to put pressure on the Red Bull at the end of the race. He said he never felt as though he was on a par with Vettel this weekend.

"I don't think we had the speed this week against Red Bull," he said. "We could have finished a few places higher in qualifying but in the end we were still not close enough to Red Bull. I guess it would have helped, but it didn't happen for many reasons and second was the best we could achieve today."

Raikkonen was heard on the radio questioning the timing of his final stop, but said in the end he had no problems with tyre wear during the race.

"It's normal to change the plans but I knew that it was maybe going to be a bit on edge to do the longer runs and if you make it a few laps longer it is going to be tricky," he said. "Obviously we had good tyre wear and I just wanted to know why we changed because the previous set was okay. It meant we had to run longer but it helped us to keep the Force India behind.

"We planned since Friday to do two stops because it felt okay and today it went well and we gained a lot of places. I didn't have a very strong first and second lap but after that the car started to come to me and I could push more and more and it was okay."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.