Kimi Raikkonen labelled the Brazilian Grand Prix "boring" but said it was a relief to reach the chequered flag after three consecutive retirements.

Raikkonen started and finished fourth at Interlagos in what was a fairly lonely race for both Ferrari drivers, with the Mercedes drivers too far ahead and Valtteri Bottas' challenge never materialising after a good start. Raikkonen has crashed out of the last three races and admits the result was the overriding positive of Brazil.

"It was quite a boring race for me, in the end," Raikkonen said. "With the new tyres it was OK, but with old tyres I struggled a lot, especially with the front tyres. It was a bit tricky, but started fourth and finished fourth. The handling was not the nicest throughout the race but this is better than the last race."

Raikkonen has been chasing set-up for much of the weekend and he is pleased Ferrari managed to maximise its result.

"We didn't try any different things, we always try to avoid issues and maximise the result. It wasn't the easiest of weekends, anyhow, I wasn't so comfortable with some things on Friday, with the set-up. It was better yesterday but I had a mistake on my last lap in qualifying. Today I struggled bit with the tyres in the race so, in many ways, it could have been a lot better, but at least we finished the race this time. Now we just have to keep working and improve."

Unlike the top three, Raikkonen stopped just twice but finished over 30 seconds behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Asked if he would have preferred a three-stop race, he replied: "No, this is what we planned. With three stops I don't think the end result would have been any different."