Raikkonen Philosophical after Accident

Finn Kimi Raikkonen was philosophical following a heavy accident during today's qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver was involved in an incident with Jordan's Takuma Sato, the Japanese driver colliding with Raikkonen's rear right tyre when arriving at the second chicane of the Monza circuit.

Sato, on a flying lap, tried to overtake Raikkonen when the Finn moved to the right, leaving the rookie with nowhere to go, their cars crashing and suffering heavy damage. Both drivers emerged unscathed.

"My incident with Sato is one of those things which happen in racing," Raikkonen said. "He was on his fifth consecutive lap, and my team was under the impression that he would be coming into the pits, which is what you would expect during qualifying, and advised me accordingly.

"When I couldn't see him in my mirrors, I believed he had slowed down and went for the line into the corner."

Both Raikkonen and Sato were summoned by the race stewards to give their views of the incident. After the crash, the session was stopped with two minutes remaining, and Raikkonen tried to jump into the spare car for his final run, but the third McLaren was set up for teammate David Coulthard and the Finn had to settle for fifth place.

"The team tried to get the spare car, which was set up for David, ready for my last run, but in the short amount of time available it was impossible," he said. "It's a shame as I believe we could have improved a little bit more and got closer to the times of the front runners."

Despite the incident, Raikkonen managed to outqualify Coulthard, who wound up seventh fastest.