Kimi Raikkonen says a clean race was all he needed to show what he can do in the F14-T after coming through from eighth on the grid to finish fourth.
The Finn scored his best finish of the season in Belgium and beat team-mate Fernando Alonso for the first time since rejoining Ferrari this year – though a five-second penalty for Alonso helped.
“The race was clean, there weren’t any issues in the race like in the past, we always had something happen and this was probably the first race this year [we didn’t],” Raikkonen said.
“Obviously it helps and meant we could do our own race and the result was a bit better, but it was still disappointing not to fight further up but we knew this race and the next race will be difficult for us.
“I think it’s the first race this year that was clean, where we don’t have damage in the car or any other issues and we can do our own race. The speed wasn’t too bad but this is still not good enough. I don’t think we deserve any better. If we deserve it we get it. Today we didn’t get it and they were a bit too fast for us.”
He now sits just one point behind the Williams of Felipe Massa in the championship standings, but warned Ferrari don’t have the straight-line speed to beat Williams are Valtteri Bottas breezed past him on the Kemmel Straight.
“It was not much of a fight really, I mean in a straight line they are much faster. On one lap he almost caught me and I could keep him behind but the next lap there was no chance. For me it doesn’t count as a fight.”
