With the wet start and qualifying hampering the iconic Norfolk marque more than most on the grid, Lotus had to settle for Raikkonen coming home seventh after a long-term battle with his E21 in Sunday’s Malaysia Grand Prix.

More eyecatching was Romain Grosjean performance, which saw the Frenchman come home sixth.

“It’s not been the best day for us, but when you take into account our qualifying positions and the difficult start for both drivers I think the points we take for sixth and seventh is a solid result,” said Boullier, with Kimi starting 10th after taking a three-place grid penalty and Grosjean 11th.

“Unfortunately with the conditions today we didn’t see the full potential of the car, and the time we lost at the start was always going to be difficult to catch up. To finish within a reasonable distance of the leaders was a good effort from both drivers and also the team in terms of our strategy. With a normal weekend I’m sure we can expect some stronger results.”

“I think we can be quite happy with the result today,” added Grosjean. “It’s not the result we would have wanted at the beginning of the weekend, but at the end of the day it’s more points for the team and we’ll try to come back stronger in Shanghai.”