Reigning F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen's miserable 2008 mid-season run continues in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, as a misguided tyre call costs the Finn and his Ferrari team any chance of triumphing.

Kimi Raikkonen was in characteristically phlegmatic mood at the end of today's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, after a mistaken tyre strategy by Ferrari cost him any hope of challenging for victory.

The Finn had looked menacing in the early stages of the race, closing in on the back of leader Lewis Hamilton prior to the first round of pit-stops - but that was where it all began to go wrong.

Sticking with the same set of intermediate tyres ultimately left the reigning Formula 1 World Champion scrabbling around for grip within the space of around ten laps, seeing him succumb to Heikki Kovalainen and Nick Heidfeld practically in one fell swoop, and he later endured a brace of spins before overhauling the Renault of Fernando Alonso in the dying laps to at least salvage five points from a race that fell a long way short of expectations - with fastest lap to his name ultimately proving little consolation.

"I am disappointed," the 28-year-old reflected afterwards, "but I am equally aware that things could have been much worse. We had the possibility to win the race but we made a mistake at the first pit-stop, keeping the same set of tyres, because we expected the track conditions to improve. It was a joint decision - we are a team and we win or lose together.

"Things are not going too well for me at the moment, given all that happened in the last few races, but I am leading the championship, even if it is on equal terms with Felipe and Lewis. We know we have a great potential, but we have to put everything in place to get the most out of it."

Raikkonen's understandable frustrations were shared by his Maranello paymasters Stefano Domenicali and Luca Baldisserri - both of whom were left ruing a key strategic error that cost the Scuderia the chance of making it six successes from nine races so far this season.

"We are very disappointed with the way things went today," confessed technical director Baldisserri. "Kimi was having a great race and he had every chance of fighting for the win, but we made a wrong choice at the first stop. We had banked on the weather getting better and it didn't; in fact the rain actually intensified for a while, which put our drivers in great difficulty.

"Clearly, looking back, one could say we should not have made this decision, but it was not just a shot in the dark, as seen from the fact that we were not the only ones to make this choice out of all the drivers who stopped around this time."

"A Sunday to forget as quickly as possible in terms of the result," agreed team principal Domenicali, "although we must remember certain elements of this weekend, as there were mistakes made that we cannot afford to repeat. We could have won this race with Kimi, but we made a key mistake at the first pit-stop, choosing to stay on the same set of tyres.

"The rain did not ease off and lasted longer and our drivers - Felipe [Massa] had also gone for the same choice - found themselves in difficulty. With hindsight it's easy to say we should have changed tyres, but Formula 1 is not an exact science - sometimes strategic choices pay off and sometimes they don't.