Raikkonen Relying on Race Strategy

The McLaren driver was one of the favourites to fight for pole position today after his team set the pace in three of the four practice sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Raikkonen, however, finished down in seventh position, over seven tenths of a second behind pole setter Jenson Button in the BAR.

More importantly, Raikkonen qualified four places behind Championship leader Fernando Alonso.

"Of course I would have liked a better grid position, but we have a strong race strategy which will give us every opportunity to get a good result," said Raikkonen. "My battle is with Alonso, so we need to make sure we finish in front of him tomorrow and hopefully our strategy should allow us to do this.

"Unlike this morning, I struggled to get my tyres fully operational during my flying lap but our package has been working well so far this weekend so I'm reasonably optimistic."

Raikkonen was also outpaced by his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who posted the fifth fastest time of the session.

"I'm quite pleased with my lap and I'm sure that we will have a good race as the strategy should be strong," said Montoya. "The aim is to have a nice, quiet and uneventful grand prix and get on the podium.

"I have been unlucky this year so far and everybody has been working so hard that I just really want it to happen tomorrow as reward for all their efforts."