Raikkonen downplays Monaco pole

Kimi Raikkonen played down the significance of his pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, saying it is no guarantee of victory on Sunday.

The Finn secured his first pole since the 2008 French Grand Prix, setting a new record of 128 races between pole positions. Despite Ferrari locking out the front row and overtaking being notoriously difficult in Monaco, Raikkonen says there is still plenty of potential for a difficult race.

"We've been close a few times lately but it's something we haven't really got in the last race," Raikkonen said. "But if you take any circuit, here it's the most important to be in front, but it doesn't automatically give you a win or a good result.

"There are so many things that can happen in a race that are nothing to do with you. You might be doing and the team might be doing a perfect job, but actually there are absolutely other things which might destroy the whole race. So it's going to be a long, difficult race, but we have two cars in the best possible positions so that's the main thing."

Raikkonen also suggested he wasn't completely happy with the handling of his car despite his impressive pace on the street circuit.

"Obviously it's the best place to start for tomorrow, but it doesn't guarantee anything for tomorrow. Nevertheless I'll happily take it. It's been all weekend quite OK. We've been struggling a little bit in certain places and we've been working and trying to figure it out and in qualifying it was better, by no means perfect, but it's never going to be perfect.

"It was good enough and I was very happy with the car in there. If you look you can always go a bit faster here and there but that's normal, it's a never-ending story like that. We had a good timing when we went out. I felt good, so I was able to push and it was quite a nice straightforward qualifying. So happy for myself, happy for the team. Obviously we have two cars in the front tomorrow so let's try to make the best out of it."

When asked what his approach will be when racing teammate Sebastian Vettel – who leads the drivers' championship – Raikkonen dismissed any notion that his role will be to help the German's title challenge.

"No different to any other point this year, last year. We know what we are doing, we are racing for the team and we have certain rules and respect against each other. We are allowed to fight but obviously, we have to do it as clean as we can and not take each other out.

"I don't know why people expect that it is something different tomorrow than it's been the last two years. Nothing has changed. Just try to make a stupid story out of nothing."