Ferrari vows to fight hard for third place

Ferrari is just one point behind its British rival in the standings, but the Maranello squad has struggled to match McLaren's pace in recent races, having stopped the development of its car.

That trend continued in today's practice in Abu Dhabi, where McLaren dominated while Kimi Raikkonen finished down in 10th and Giancarlo Fisichella in 17th.

"Our main rivals in the fight for third place in the constructors' classification are going through a very positive phase, while we are having to make a virtue of necessity, trying to get the most out what we have got to work with," said Domenicali.

"However, this does not mean we will not be fighting right down to the last lap, as we are not the sort to give up that easily."

Raikkonen insisted his car was simply too slow as a result of having stopped development several races ago.

"The car is not bad to drive, but it is simply slow and lacks grip, as in fact has been the case very often this year," he said.

"It's not as though there is a specific reason why it's not going well, but most of all, its down to our choice to stop development of the F60, so our performance level compared to the others is going down race by race, given that so many teams are still working on this year's cars."