MARINA BAY, Singapore -- Kimi Raikkonen says there is no question he could have made it to the end of the Singapore Grand Prix without the final pit stop that dropped him behind Lewis Hamilton.
Raikkonen passed Hamilton on track for third position earlier in the race but lost the place again when Ferrari reacted to Mercedes' strategy gamble. Both cars looked set to go to the end of the race following their second pit stops, but Hamilton made a third 16 laps from the end in order to attack Raikkonen on fresh tyres.
Rather than wait for Hamilton to catch up the time he lost during the stop, Ferrari immediately reacted by pitting Raikkonen a lap later but in doing so lost track position to Hamilton. Prior to the stop Raikkonen was on 13-lap old soft compound tyres and has no doubt they would have lasted until the end of the race.
"For sure we could have got to the end on those tyres," he said. "If he [Hamilton] would have been able to catch us and pass, that I don't know.
"We'll be going through all the things and see what we could have done better. I think there were a few things we could have done but afterwards it's always very easy to say."
Raikkonen said Ferrari had been close to Hamilton and the Red Bulls all weekend.
"I think we weren't so far from the Red Bull yesterday or Lewis. I think we had pretty good speed but for most of the race we were stuck behind them. Nico had more speed than any of us. We did our own race and we can be quite happy.
"Obviously we gained one place but that's not what we are looking to achieve. We try to be in a position to win races, so we need to make the car go faster. Third or fourth is not exactly what we want."