Felipe Massa: P1
“I did a fantastic lap in a fantastic car and it was possibly my best qualifying of the season. Given my margin over the others, with hindsight it’s easy to say maybe I could have run with slightly more fuel, but we firmly believe we have a very competitive strategy. At every corner, at every braking point I tried to get the most out of the car and I think I managed it.

Reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen has conceded that winning the world championship this year is no longer a realistic goal.

The Ferrari driver finds himself languishing 21 points behind title leaders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa after a mid-season slump.

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo is adamant that Kimi Raikkonen will rediscover his form before the end of the season.

In last week’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza Raikkonen failed to muster the kind of performance that he showed behind the wheel of his Ferrari in Belgium, albeit before crashing out of the race in the wet.

One week on from their titanic clash in Belgium, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton will once again find themselves doing battle in the Ardenne after heavy rain in qualifying for today’s Italian Grand Prix left them languishing alongside each other in fourteenth and fifteenth respectively.

His title hopes may have taken a knock when he went crashing into the wall in Belgium, but defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen did enough damage in the laps preceding his controversial run-in with Lewis Hamilton, it would seem, to convince his employees of his long-term credentials and hunger for Formula One.

Kimi Raikkonen had little to say about Lewis Hamilton’s controversial penalty in Monza, but unlike other drivers who have moved to defend the Briton’s actions, the Ferrari driver simply claimed that “rules are rules”.

Out-of-form defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen may have won the support of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, but the bookies, it would seem, are less than convinced that a change in form is imminent.

Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his victory in Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday after stewards deemed the McLaren driver to have gained an advantage by cutting a chicane during a scrap with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

The stewards dealt Hamilton with a 25 second time penalty which was enough to gift the win to Felipe Massa.

The result of the Belgian Grand Prix is currently in doubt after race stewards have announced they are investigating an incident between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

Felipe Massa is expecting support from Kimi Raikkonen should he emerge as Ferrari’s best hope for the world championship.

Massa has fast emerged as Ferrari’s leading challenger for the title with Raikkonen having a torrid few races.