Raikkonen admits Mercedes strategy hurt his tyres

Kimi Raikkonen was clearly disappointed not to be able to deliver a home win for Ferrari at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday.

The Finn had succeeded in taking pole position for the Italian Grand Prix, and initially held the lead of the race into turn 1.

He was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton during the restart following an early safety car period, but immediately struck back to regain the top spot. He then thwarted the Mercedes driver's attempt to pull off an 'overcut' during the pit stops.

But Raikkonen subsequently lost time when he found himself struck behind Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas, with Mercedes using strategy to get the upper hand.

"That's what happens sometimes. It's a very normal game that is being played by all the top three teams. Sometimes it works and sometimes not.

• Hamilton works hard to take Monza win over Raikkonen

"It's one of those things. For sure we wanted a better result, but this is what we got. We did out best and it wasn't good enough."

The Mercedes tactics ended up putting him on the back foot, and on lap 45 he finally succumbed to heavy pressure from Hamilton and dropped to second place.

“I tried but it was impossible in the end unfortunately," Raikkonen said afterwards. "Far from ideal but this is what we’ve got today.

“It is hard to take but we tried and we had great support from a lot of people.

“At least we take second place and we’ll keep fighting," he promised the fans cheering him from trackside. "Thank you and sorry for not winning. Next time.”

Raikkonen insisted that there had been nothing lacking in the Ferrari technical package this weekend. “I think for sure we had the speed.

“I think it was quite enough but unfortunately our rear tyres went," he explained. "There was nothing left on the left tyre

"Luckily it lasted until the end of the race," he said. "It was a losing battle after that point."

Raikkonen agreed that being bottled up between the two Mercedes cars for so many laps had certainly been a factor in wearing down his tyres.

"[It] didn’t help to be behind the other cars for some laps," he said. "And it wasn't really like you can save an awful lot of tyres, you are not in a position to start saving and taking it easy.

Raikkonen didn't think there was anything more that he could have done today to manage the tyre wear better than he did.

"It's always easy to say afterwards, but it wasn't really much that we could have relaxed," he said. "Well you can, but then you let him past.

"There was no moment we just could take it easy and relax. It wasn't really a case of, 'Let’s just go around and save the tyres for the last moment'.

"There are so many little things that make you push that there's no chance to save much," he sighed. "We had to go, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off today."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter