MONTREAL, Canada -- Kimi Raikkonen insists he remains free to race Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel on equal terms despite losing the Monaco Grand Prix to a questionable strategy.
Raikkonen claimed pole and led the opening stint at Monte Carlo, only to be called in for a pit stop that saw him released into traffic on a circuit notorious for having few overtaking opportunities. That pit stop and an extended stint for Vettel saw the German emerge from his stop in front of Raikkonen to claim the win.
The strategy made little sense for a team attempting to win the race and many saw it as proof the team is already set to back championship leader Vettel in his title fight with Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. After the race, Hamilton himself said the result proved Ferrari views Vettel as number one, but Raikkonen says there is no policy dictating who finishes in front.
"No, we don't have anything," he said. "But obviously when it comes to that part of the season that one guy has a chance and one guy doesn't have a chance it's normal, it's like it's always been at any team, [even] McLaren. I don't have any issue with that, it's a fair game. We fight until we can and then if we have to do something else then fair enough."
Referring to Hamilton's comments, he said: "Unless he knows about the whole thing, however he thinks is fine for me. We know what we do and sometimes things happen and it's nothing unusual."
Though the strategy led to questions over Ferrari's true intentions Raikkonen does not believe there is any reason to doubt the team will always give him the best chance to win in future this year.
When asked if he would find it difficult to trust the team's strategy in future, he said: "It's not difficult with strategy, we don't second guess as we work as a team. Sometimes we get it wrong and it's not because of me, it's not because it's [the team], it happened last time and we've seen it many, many times -- things come together and you get it right or wrong. It often happens.
"In my view it's very little that you get it always 100 percent right, circuits like Monaco give you a bigger penalty because the overtaking is difficult. Even if it is a lapped car it's much harder than any other place, so it just happened."
Raikkonen's demeanour on the podium after the race in Monaco suggested he was unhappy at how the race had unfolded, but he says that was only because he was disappointed not to have won.
"I'm not mad, I was never mad. I was not happy finishing second, as simple as that. Seb won, we were one and two so that was not a bad result for the team. I was not happy because I would much rather prefer being first than second - as simple as that.
"If people think I should be smiling that's up to them, I'll be smiling when I have the results from myself that I expect, simple as that. I think it would be much more worrying if I was happy with second, third, or whatever, I don't really care what people think."