> 2008 British Grand Prix

I think it was due to the rain that came immediately after the pitstops, had it stayed dry it may have been a different story.

Originally Posted by Safin

When he came into the pits, it was already clear that it was going to rain heavily, infact already it was raining heavily in the pit lane area. Some one just thought that it was a passing shower, and this was their master stroke

Kimi Raikkonen: I am disappointed, 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."

"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 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.