Even though he held the lead for most of the race, Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher was more than happy to come in second in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Speaking at the post-race press conference, the seven-time world champion said "quite honestly if you consider where we were last year and what happened over the winter, if somebody told us then we would finish second in this race we would have been absolutely happy about it, and we are honestly happy".
"Of course it's always nicer to win. Nevertheless, it was a good result and good work from the team. The car was reliable, fast and very promising for the rest of the season," he added.
Schumacher had pole position and stayed out in front until lap 40, when reigning world champion Fernando Alonso came out from his second pit stop and took the lead by a hair. The Renault driver then held Schumacher at bay for the last 18 laps.
One of the reasons why people at Ferrari were happy with the second place finish was that had Schumacher not lost a lap's fuel allowance in qualifying he could have easily won the season opener.
"Unfortunately I lost one lap in qualifying where, for traffic reasons I had to back off and I didn't get the fuel. If you look at it now, it was that the one lap I needed to stay ahead," the 37-year-old German driver said after the race.
This view was shared by team director Jean Todt who said "I hate speaking with hindsight but with the missing fuel Schumacher definitely would have been able to do one more lap. And when you consider he was level with Alonso after the second pit stop, he could have been three-tenths of a second ahead and that would have meant being a few car's lengths ahead".
Looking ahead to next Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix, Todt said "we saw evidence here that we have a good car and a good package but we must not take things for granted. It may be a very tough weekend next week with the high temperatures there, but it will be tough for everyone".
"However I think we have quite a good package, the team did a very good job and Bridgestone did a very good job with the tires so we are heading in the right direction, he added".
