Raikkonen Welcomes 'Lucky' Win

Raikkonen's third win in four races left him 22 points adrift of the 23-year-old Renault driver with 11 races remaining.

"We were a little bit lucky today but we were so unlucky in the last race," said Raikkonen, who crashed out of the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring two weeks ago on the last lap while leading Alonso.

"We got those 10 points back. We are definitely back in the Championship, back and fighting again.

"Everything worked well, no problem at all, we had new brakes for this race so thanks for them and the engine was also very good."

On a humid afternoon full of drama, McLaren were deprived of a likely one-two by the exclusion of fiery Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya while Spaniard Alonso was sidelined by his first retirement of the season.

With McLaren looking at a one-two finish, despite Raikkonen wrestling with a steering problem, the Colombian left the pitlane under a red light as the field was passing behind the safety car.

Stewards excluded him.