Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari’s “massive step” forward in 2015 is no surprise for the team after Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

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Vettel outpaced the previously dominant Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to win at Sepang, with Raikkonen recovering from a puncture at the end of the first lap to finish fourth.

With Ferrari failing to win a race at all in 2014, Raikkonen says the result shows what a big step forward the team has made but insists it was one he was expecting since the first test of this year.

“Obviously we had a good car in the first race and since the first test we always said we had a pretty good car,” Raikkonen said. “It’s not a big surprise for us, obviously this weather probably helped and we got the pit stops right both with Seb and with me even with the issues.

“It’s hard to say where we’re going to be exactly at the next circuit because every circuit is different but it’s a good base. Obviously we have things to improve and we will get new parts and stuff so that will always help. Like we said from the first test it’s a massive step from last year and it’s a great job from the team and a very good thing for the team.”

And Raikkonen says fourth place was the best result he could have achieved after picking up a puncture after being hit by Felipe Nasr at the final corner at the end of the first lap.

“Obviously we had quite a lot bad luck in quite a few places this weekend but there’s not much I can do when I get touched from behind and it is what it is.

“Luckily there was a safety car and we had OK speed, we had some damage with the tyre flapping around on the floor but we did the maximum that we could. Obviously for the team it’s a pretty good result, they got the win. It could have been better but obviously the team with what we had today we did the maximum.”

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