Monza a pain in the neck for Kimi.

Kimi Raikkonen had to be content with the final place on the podium at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, after the Scuderia were well and truly outclassed by McLaren.

Raikkonen was unable to really trouble Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton throughout the 53-lap race and while he did split the two late on, he couldn't maintain second place to the flag.

Speaking at the finish, the Finn conceded that physically the race was very difficult after he injured his neck on Saturday when he crashed heavily in practice.

"This was definitely a tough race for me because of the pain I felt in my neck after yesterday's accident, which was bad enough to make it hard for me to hold my head steady under braking," he explained.

"Having said that though, today we were not really quick enough [to challenge the McLarens]. We knew it would not be an easy weekend, as we had already realised that in last week's test, with Friday and yesterday confirming it.

"The car was not bad in the first stint but then we were not strong enough. We just didn't have the speed today. That's how it goes."

As for when he was passed by Hamilton near the end, Kimi said that while he tried to hold the Englishman off in the end he was just too slow to keep him behind.

"I tried to defend my position but he was definitely quicker than me. I tried to do my best but then he got too close and got past me, so after that I just slowed down and drove to the finish of the race," added the Finn.

Despite what was a disappointing weekend for Ferrari though, the 'ice-man' believes that next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix could be a very different story.

"For sure McLaren were strong here, stronger than us but I think once we go back to Spa it should level out a little bit.

"Then it will probably be closer again. But of course we wanted to win our home race but we couldn't do that, but we still got a podium - lost some points to McLaren but they were just better today," Kimi summed-up.