Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen says he hopes to use his victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as the foundation for a second world title. Raikkonen beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in a tense, strategic fight in Melbourne on Sunday.

Raikkonen said: "It feels good but it's only one race. It doesn't change our aim and work for this year.

"We are happy with the win but there is a lot to do to win the championship."

The Finn added that he had always been confident of a strong race performance despite a relatively poor qualifying position of seventh, which he said was down to him taking it too easy and making a small mistake.

After a good start put him up to fourth on the first lap Raikkonen made one less pit stop than his rivals to take a comfortable win.

"I knew the car was quite good," he said.

"In a way I was pretty confident but of course you have to get through the start and the first lap and you never know what it going to happen and there is a lot of question marks but I felt we had a good chance.

"Our plan was to do two stops, it's always difficult in the first races to know when to stop.

"We got it exactly right, the team worked extremely well. We had a plan and we followed the plan and it worked out perfectly for us.

"I could save the tyres and I could go fast when I wanted. It was one of the easiest races to win. Hopefully we can have more races like this."

Raikkonen said he hoped Lotus would be able to keep pace with Ferrari and Red Bull on development despite the team's smaller budget.

"For sure money is a big thing," he said. "I have no doubts we have the tools but surely not the same budget as Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

"If we get more money it will help give us a better chance against the big teams but we have a good plan and if we can follow that it might be good."