Never knowingly upbeat, Kimi Raikkonen said that he was disappointed with only managing fourth place in Melbourne.
"Obviously for the team it was a great start winning the race," the Ferrari driver told Sky Sports F1. "From my side a bit not ideal. But it's a good foundation and we have a strong package."
Raikkonen felt that his race was compromised by not doing better in Saturday's qualifying session. The ultrasoft tyres he used in Q2 were the same set he started the race on.
"Obviously especially here it's all about qualifying and the start and it's hard to overtake on this circuit," he pointed out. "I suffered a bit with the same tyres than in qualifying with the ultrasofts. When I moved to the soft tyres I was good."
Raikkonen spent much of the race being followed by Max Verstappen, but Raikkonen didn't feel pressured by the Red Bull.
"I wasn't too worried about him because it's hard to get past on the average speed they wanted to use," he said. "We had to do quite a bit of fuel saving. I guess all the guys have to. Then I pushed in the end a bit. No complaints on that point."
The lack of overtaking opportunities also meant that Raikkonen ultimately had no option but to settle for fourth place.
"Disappointing, but I'm happy we understood a lot of things so we can get it back to where it should be in the next race," he said. "I'm happy we know what to do.
"It's not an ideal start but at least I got points and fourth place is far from a disaster.
"Comparing to past years I think we have a very strong foundation to build on," he added. "We just need to put things 100 per cent in the right place and go from there.
"It's going to be a long year and a lot can happen."
GALLERY: all the pics from Sunday's action
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