Ferrari says drivers did their best

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali said drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella were not to blame for the team's awful performance in the Singapore Grand Prix.

The duo qualified 13th and 18th, and finished 10th and 13th, having spent the whole race in midfield traffic jams.

Domenicali reckons the results showed that Ferrari has now been leapfrogged by the teams still working hard on their 2009 cars, whereas the Italian squad has now written off this year to focus on a major resurgence in 2010.

"Honestly, I don't think we could have done much better," said Domenicali.

"Kimi and Giancarlo did their best, trying to exploit what their cars had to offer.

"We have to accept the fact that many other teams have made yet another step forward in terms of performance, which makes our technical situation even more difficult, given that development on the F60 stopped a while ago now."

Both drivers said they lacked the pace to make progress even if they hadn't been stuck in traffic.

"I couldn't do any better," said Raikkonen.

"The car was sliding everywhere and I had no grip.

"In the final part, with the softer tyres, the situation improved a bit, but by then it was too late."

Fisichella was similarly frustrated.

"The pace was not up to Ferrari's standard and we have to take that on board," he said.

"I was struggling to keep the car on track because of a lack of grip."

With Lewis Hamilton winning, McLaren is now just three points behind Ferrari in the battle for third in the constructors' championship - and Domenicali insisted the team is still fighting for that spot despite its efforts being poured into the new car.

"When we took that decision, we knew we would pay for it more and more as the end of the season approached, but let's be clear on one thing-  we are not giving up," he said.

"There are still three races to go and we will tackle them with maximum effort because we want to do all we can to finish third in the constructors' classification.

"In a strange season like this one, anything can happen."