F1: Podium gave Raikkonen "mixed feelings"

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen said he had mixed feelings about securing only his second Formula 1 podium of the season in Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

The Finn was pleased with how his car felt during practice, but complained of a lack of grip and admitted he was struggling with braking and turn-in during Saturday's sessions. Although he qualified third and kept that position to score the 79th podium of his career, Raikkonen remained unhappy with the Ferrari in race trim as teammate Sebastian Vettel took victory ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

"I have mixed feelings," he said. "I am happy to be in third place after how difficult it's felt in the last two days with some issues that we had. But it's disappointing, in that on Friday we knew that we were faring pretty well.

"For whatever reason, on Saturday morning already in the practice we had difficult handling with the car. And then through qualifying it was not exactly what we wanted and [I] was a bit surprised to still be third.

"In the race, I had no chance to do anything about the first two. I could follow them at the beginning but once my tires dropped off, they just went. It wasn't that nice to have that kind of difficulties but we still finished third and when you have a bad few days and you finish third it's pretty good."

While Vettel has scored nine podiums, including three wins, this term Raikkonen has fared less well and trails his teammate by 96 points. The 36-year-old has struggled in qualifying in particular, while mistakes and mechanical issues have hurt him in the races. But the Finn has reversed his one-lap form in the last two GPs, qualifying second at Monza before his third at Singapore, and he is hopeful that trend will continue.

"We've had some other chances to be on the podium quite a few times but either I made a mistake or something else happened," said Raikkonen. "It's been a bit of an up-and-down year but hopefully we keep building.

"Obviously the things that we are doing are definitely going in the right direction. We just have to have some patience to build on this."

Originally on Autosport.com