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Ferrari puts Raikkonen's poor Monaco GP down to dislike of track

Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Maurizio Arrivabene says Kimi Raikkonen's Monaco Grand Prix struggle can be shrugged off as Monte Carlo just being a weak circuit for the Finn

Raikkonen was sixth fastest in qualifying, two tenths off team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but started 11th after a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

He then hit the barriers at the hairpin in wet conditions in the race, breaking his front wing and getting it stuck under his front wheels before eventually retiring.

It was his second retirement of the season but Arrivabene believes Monaco was just a blip.

"Every driver that I have known in the past has a track that he doesn't like and Kimi doesn't like Monaco, even if he won once here," said Arrivabene.

"We need not to complain about Kimi but to accept that his race was over early.

"He is pushing to always do his best for the rest of the season."

Raikkonen has scored three podiums in six races this season, compared to just one at this point in 2015.

His points tally, however, is only one better after six races, though he leads Vettel by a point compared to trailing him by 38 after Monaco last year.

Raikkonen believes Ferrari has a quicker car than last year and remains hopeful it can better exploit the package in the upcoming races.

"This weekend was a very bad end result, but we go for the next race," he said.

"People will say that we're not doing as well as last year and if you look at wins then no [we're not], but that doesn't tell you the full picture.

"I'm sure we have a lot better package than we had last year.

"We are not happy with where we are, that's certain, but we are here to improve and we try to keep working.

"Until we are one-two every weekend we cannot be happy - that's our goal, hopefully we get there."

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