Raikkonen stays out of spy row

Kimi Raikkonen has distanced himself from his Ferrari team's ongoing row with McLaren, saying the championship has to be decided on the track.

Ferrari are furious that McLaren escaped punishment over the recent spy row, before claiming the Italians' car was illegal in the first race of 2007.

But Raikkonen told BBC Sport: "I have not followed any of this and it is for other people, not me, to get involved.

"It would be great if things were just decided on the circuit to be honest."

McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, who has since been suspended by the team, was found to have nearly 800 pages of Ferrari documents in his house last month and the FIA world motorsport council (WMSC) found McLaren guilty of possessing confidential Ferrari information.

However, it went on to say there was "insufficient evidence" that the team had used it to their benefit and McLaren were not punished, though FIA president Max Mosley has now sent the verdict to its court of appeal.

And the row was further ignited when McLaren team boss Ron Dennis wrote an open letter to the FIA claiming that Ferrari's car in the first race of the season was illegal.

Raikkonen won that race in Australia, but said: "For everything there is a reason but it is for other people to make the decisions.

"Myself and Felipe (Massa) are just going to push as hard as we can to win races and fight to gain as many points as possible.

"That is the only way we know how to race. We're not waiting to gain an advantage in any other way, we're doing our job on the track.

"As for Mr Dennis's letter about race one, I guess we would have been disqualified if that was true so I guess he was not right."

Source: BBC Sport