Raikkonen: Staying calm

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World champion Kimi Rakkonen insists neither he nor his Ferrari team are in a crisis after a second successive bad weekend in Germany.

Raikkonen could only finish sixth in Hockenheim as Lewis Hamilton won his second race on the spin and fourth of the season.

Felipe Massa finished third to sit four points behind Hamilton in the drivers' standings, while the defending champion is now six adrift of the British driver.

McLaren were comfortably faster than the Ferraris and have closed the gap by 14 points to now sit 19 points back in the constructors' title.

Although it was another disappointing weekend for the Finn and his team, he is staying characteristically calm and insists there is no crisis.

"This was definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for," said Raikkonen.

"We have struggled all weekend and we have to try and understand why."

Race pace

"Usually, our race pace is always good, but here that was not the case because I almost always suffered with a lack of grip.

"Only in the final stages did the situation improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive.

"We have a test in Jerez this week, where we will try and improve the car so as to arrive in Budapest in better shape.

"But this is definitely not a crisis. We have to study carefully the handling of the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development."

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo blasted the entire team after a poor showing in the British Grand Prix and he will not be happy with their efforts in Germany.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali is bitterly disappointed with their performance over the weekend and wants to get to the bottom of the problems.

Disappointment

"This was not a good day, and there's no point denying it," stated Domenicali.

"Our rivals were stronger than us and we have to work out why, without getting caught up in nebulous and superficial analysis.

"For the first time this season in a race we did not have the pace we had expected to run at, both with Kimi and Felipe.

"We suffered constantly from lack of grip, and in the final stages, Felipe's brakes were also overheating, complicating further the management of his car.

"We now have to work well over the coming days to react in the right manner to return to the level we were at just two races ago."

Raikkonen's team-mate Massa also wondered why they were so far off the McLaren pace after not so long agao finishing first and second in France.

"It was a difficult race," said Massa.

"Right from the beginning Hamilton's pace seemed unbeatable, and I understood it would be very hard to beat him.

"We must try and understand why we have not been a match for our rivals this weekend.

"They have definitely improved, but I think this was more a case of us having taken a step backwards.

"However, we are still confident. We have the ability to get out of this situation, right from the next race."