Kimi Raikkonen felt a lack of grip with his Lotus was one of the reasons why he missed out on a podium place in Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Finn, who won last week’s Australian Grand Prix, had to give best to his teammate Romain Grosjean, who finished one spot ahead of him in sixth place.

The results placed the Enstone-based team second behind Red Bull in the Constructors Championship.

“Although the car felt very good on Friday, yesterday and today have been pretty difficult,” he said after the race.

“Since Saturday morning it has not been behaving as we expected for some reason, especially in the wet where we really struggled for grip.

“It was a tough race and I lost part of my front wing at the start which didn’t help, but at least we scored a few points which is better than coming away with nothing.

“If we can get the car back to how it was in Australia then I’m sure we’ll be at the front again.”

Grosjean added: “I think we can be quite happy with the result. “It was a tough race, starting wet and finishing dry, but that’s what you expect in Malaysia.

“I spent a lot of time stuck behind Felipe Massa in the middle phase of the race and I’m sure if I could have passed him earlier then I would have stayed ahead.

“But by the end, my tyres were finished, so it was best just to let him through.”

Lotus team principal Eric Boullier admitted: “It’s not been the best day for us, but when you take into account our qualifying positions and the difficult start for both drivers I think the points we take for sixth and seventh is a solid result.

“Unfortunately with the conditions, we didn’t see the full potential of the car, and the time we lost at the start was always going to be difficult to catch up.

To finish within a reasonable distance of the leaders was a good effort from both drivers and also the team in terms of our strategy.”

Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde finished 14th and 15th respectively for the Leafield-based Caterham team.