Raikkonen Disappointed to Miss Out on Points

Sauber driver Kimi Raikkonen was disappointed not to be able to score any points at the Italian Grand Prix following a promising performance in qualifying on Saturday.

Finn Raikkonen, who will drive for the McLaren team next season, missed out on the final point after finishing in seventh place less than a second behind BAR's Jacques Villeneuve. The 21-year old admitted he was forced to save his Bridgestone tyres and was unable to overtake the Canadian at the end of the race.

"I didn't make a great start and had already lost two places when Trulli spun in front of me in the first chicane. That lost me more, and having to run in traffic after that really compromised my race because we had gone for a light fuel load initially and intended to take on a higher load after my pit stop.

"After the stop I had to nurse the tyres for a long time and could only really attack Villeneuve in the closing stages. Then I was able to drop the gap from eight seconds to about half a second, but I just ran out of laps to get the final point."

Having qualified in eighth position yesterday, Heidfeld was forced to take the start from the pitlane when his Ferrari-powered C20 was hit by a hydraulics problem before the formation lap. The German driver was unable to gain many positions and had to settle for a disappointing 12th place.

"This was a very disappointing race for me," Heidfeld admitted. "It went wrong on the grid formation lap when my car developed a problem in the hydraulics and I had to start in the spare car from the pitlane. I caught the tail end of the field quite quickly, but then I lost a lot of time in the heavy traffic.

"I spent most of my time nursing my tyres as they began to lose their edge, and some laps the car was good and some laps it wasn't. It was a tough afternoon."