Lotus Renault boss Eric Boullier has admitted that he was not surprised that his team struggled in the Malaysian Grand Prix at the weekend.

Kimi Raikkonen triumphed in the season opener in Australia, but the Finn and Romain Grosjean both finished more than half a minute off the pace on Sunday.

"It is a prediction we had after the winter testing. It is going to be very, very tight. I think you can expect, mainly because of the tyre management situation, a different race winner each time," Boullier told AutoSport.

"But we can say we are definitely in the top four. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and us are very, very close."

The Chinese Grand Prix takes place next month.

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