• Belgian Grand Prix

'My car was not very nice to drive' - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen struggled to pass Michael Schumacher due to a top speed disadvantage © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Belgian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Kimi Räikkönen

• Teams:
• Lotus F1

Kimi Raikkonen was satisfied with third place at the Belgian Grand Prix after revealing that he struggled with oversteer and a lack of top speed throughout the race.

Raikkonen was the highest-finishing two stopper, but was no match for Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel ahead of him on one-stop strategies. He said the his Lotus's handling had not been to his liking and that he was happy to come away with third.

"My car was not very nice to drive all race," Raikkonen said. "It was okay on new tyres in qualifying, but we were fourth fastest and quite a long way from the guys in front of us. So I wasn't expecting a very easy race and it turned out to be very different. The first few laps with new tyres were pretty good but then it was sliding a lot at the rear end and I was just struggling with the grip. We ran more downforce to try and get more grip but then we were struggling with the straight-line speed."

Raikkonen pulled a sensational move on Michael Schumacher through Eau Rouge for third place after his second pit stop, but said with his lack of top speed meant it was his only option to get past.

"With Michael I passed him once and then he got me back," Raikkonen explained. "Then I knew that my only chance was to try to be behind at the DRS detection point and then get ahead of him, because I couldn't pass him from behind in the DRS zone because we were on the [rev] limiter. I had to just take a chance to overtake him with the KERS into Eau Rouge and it kind of paid off but he almost caught me back. So we didn't have the speed today, but third place is okay."

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