Result should have been much better - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen says he and Ferrari were capable of achieving much more than his eventual fifth place in a breathless and chaotic 2017 Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix.

Ferrari opted to keep the Finn out far longer than team mate Sebastian Vettel before their final stops, with the pair pitting on laps 39 and 34 respectively. But with Raikkonen's tyres fading, his late stop ended up dropping him behind both Red Bulls and effectively out of podium contention.

Raikkonen appeared to question the strategy at the time, asking the team over the radio: "So where we going to finish? Because I have no front end and it’s 20 laps to go…"

Asked afterwards whether the strategy compromised his race, Raikkonen replied: "I think we could have, should have had a better result - but this is what we got today.

"I think we should have changed earlier, but obviously it's easy to look at what happened and say after the race.

"The car was good when the tyres were fresh, but it seemed to lose the front and at a place like this, you give a lot of time away and struggle to drive.

"I feel we should have done much better..."

Having also narrowly missed out on the podium in Australia, Raikkonen now sits fifth in the championship on 22 points - almost half that of team mate Sebastian Vettel, who followed up victory in Melbourne by fighting back to finish second in Shanghai, passing Raikkonen en route.