Kimi Raikkonen has defended his Lotus team's decision not to order Romain Grosjean to allow the Finn to overtake in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Raikkonen crossed second to record his first podium finish since returning to the sport this year, but was only three seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.

Critics have pointed out that he may have won the race should he not have been held up by teammate Grosjean at an important stage of the race.

However, Raikkonen agrees with Lotus's call not to order the Frenchman to move aside and instead has blamed himself for not claiming victory.

"There are no team orders and I tried to get past as quickly as I could, but it's not easy because we have two similar cars," Raikkonen told Sky Sports News.

"It's always easy afterwards to say 'if we had done that', but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take second.

"We gave ourselves a chance and it's a bit disappointing not to win, but at least we got the podium with both cars. After the last race, people probably thought we were a bit stupid, and after yesterday, but it turned out to be the right decision and I think the team deserve what we have achieved."

Read how the race unfolded here.