Raikkonen Laments Missed One-Two

Raikkonen's slim title chances suffered another setback when teammate Juan Pablo Montoya crashed out of second place in the closing stages of the race - handing World Championship leader Fernando Alonso the runners-up position.

And after Raikkonen and Montoya had dominated the early stages of the race, the Finn could not believe that McLaren had failed to take the 1-2.

"It is unfortunate for the team whatever happened in the last few laps," said Raikkonen. "It is a shame we could not have the 1-2 because we deserved it. We had a perfect race for the team and I was happy with the car and how it went.

"We deserved to have both cars on the podium."

Speaking about his afternoon, Raikkonen said that the late race pace that allowed him to leapfrog Montoya at the final rounds of pitstops was most likely thanks to him looking after his tyres early on.

"I looked after the tyres and when it started to dry out my tyres were in a good position and I was able to catch up to the rest really quickly, which was good," he said.

"We (Montoya and Raikkonen) had decided not to race against each too much as long as we pulled away from the rest. I was quicker at one point and then we stopped and he was really quick.

"I could not follow him but I started to look after my tyres and I caught up in the end. It was a different way of driving, and maybe a different set-up, so that was why there was slightly different speed."