Kimi Raikkonen has said that he is disappointed he couldn’t pass Carlos Sainz Jr for a podium position at the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend.

Raikkonen had his strongest race of the year, starting the race from eighth position, and his Alfa Romeo showed strong race pace as he held on to a mid top ten position for the majority of the race.

The 40-year-old was then able to take advantage of the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas retiring and the Ferraris taking each other out, but lost out on a position to Sainz after pitting for new tyres during the safety car period.

Despite having much fresher tyres than the McLaren, Raikkonen was unable to find a way past, and had to settle for fifth, although he was later promoted to fourth after Lewis Hamilton’s penalty.

Although Raikkonen was happy to secure his best result of the season, he was still disappointed that he couldn’t pass Sainz in the closing stages of the race.

“It’s great to finally be able to celebrate our best result of the season as a team.” commented Raikkonen.

“It was a positive day and finally we were able to get the result we worked so hard for.

“We kept on our own most of the race, but at the end we were in the middle of the action.

“I am disappointed we couldn’t get past Sainz for what turned out to be the final podium position: we had the speed, got a good run on him twice but couldn’t get past.

“But you always want something more: in the end, it’s good to get big points with both cars.”

Raikkonen’s team-mate, Antonio Giovinazzi, also had a strong race, finishing just behind Raikkonen to take fifth place, his best result to date, and he felt the result was a great way to celebrate his recent contract extension with Alfa Romeo for next year.

“What a great race, it was a fantastic way to celebrate my contract for next year with two cars in the points.” added Giovinazzi.

“We had a great start, the best this year – we made up three places and went straight into the top ten, but we still had a lot of work to do.

“The last ten laps were crazy, it was quite intense but we managed to stay ahead.

“Everyone in the team did a wonderful job and we can be really happy with our work.”