Kimi Raikkonen was pleased to leave Bahrain as the world championship leader after admitting he was never satisfied with his Ferrari’s handling.


The Finn was outpaced by team-mate Felipe Massa all weekend and finished runner-up to him in the race, but took the points lead from Lewis Hamilton after the Briton hit trouble.


Raikkonen reckoned second place was “a good outcome” in the circumstances.


“The whole weekend has been pretty difficult – one of those times where we couldn’t really get the car really right,” he said.
“But anyhow, if we look at it [that we had] a bad weekend and we still finished second, I don’t mind; the next race might be completely different.


“We are leading the championship – that’s the main thing – and we know that we have the speed once we get everything right.


“It was not the easiest weekend, for sure, and the race was quite difficult, but anyhow I’m happy with second place.”


Raikkonen lost some time at his first pit stop but didn’t feel that cost him a chance of victory.


“In the first stop there was a problem with the lights system so it took much longer that it was supposed to, but I don’t think it changed much,” he said.


Instead, Raikkonen blamed his relatively low-key showing on inconsistent car balance and the fact that he does not share his team-mate’s affinity for the Sakhir track.


“[The handling] hasn’t been perfect all weekend,” he said.


“The problem is that one lap is good and the next lap is different, and we haven’t really found [a consistent balance]. But that’s life.


“I’ve never been too happy at this circuit, and I think out of these first three races it is important to get many points, and usually after that the season really starts.


“So I am happy to be leading when we go back to Europe and hopefully we can be very strong in the next races.”