Raikkonen hopeful of stronger race pace

The Finn, searching for his second consecutive victory after winning the Belgian Grand Prix, will start the Monza from third position, behind Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil.

The former world champion admitted his car was not perfect in qualifying trim, but he believes it will perform more strongly on Sunday.

"It is not perfect for sure but it shows us again that once we put race fuel in the car it is stronger against the others," said Raikkonen.

"The car is more difficult in Q2 than in Q1 or Q3. It has been very good all weekend. We have some issues with it but unfortunately we cannot fix them as well as we want.

"Overall, with race fuel the car is running nicely and I am very happy with it.

"It was one of our best qualifyings of the season and it's a good time to do it because it's our home race and hopefully tomorrow will get us in a stronger place for the race and fight for top three places.

"It will not be easy tomorrow but we will see how it goes."

He added: "In both races I think we knew that the car was going to be stronger in the race than in qualifying and if you start from sixth or third, it is a bigger chance to have a strong finish. It will be a long, hard race for the car, so I cannot really say much more.

"We give the best and hopefully give the best for our Italian fans and ourselves."

Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, in his first race for Ferrari, qualified down in 14th.