MONZA, Sept 9, 2007 (AFP) - Ferrari´s flying Finn Kimi Raikkonen admitted Sunday that his Italian team did not have the speed to win the Italian Grand Prix.

And he revealed that strained neck muscles after a crash on Saturday caused him pain the race.

But his disappointment after finishing third behind the triumphant McLaren Mercedes-Benz duo of victorious Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Briton Lewis Hamilton was nothing to that of Ferrari´s Brazilian Felipe Massa.

He was so downhearted after being forced to retire after only 10 laps with mechanical problems that he conceded his dreams of fighting for the McLaren men for the drivers´ title were almost certainly over.

"It is not impossible, but it is going to be very, very difficult," he said.

"I am so disappointed. Nothing is worse than this. It is just horrible to see your chances in a race go in the early stages like that - and because of a reliability problem.

"There was something wrong with the rear suspension. At first I thought it might be a puncture but after the tyres were changed and it was still undriveable I had to retire."

Raikkonen had opted for a one-stop strategy to try and overcome the pace of the two McLaren drivers, but despite getting past Lewis Hamilton in the pit-stops, he was unable to hold onto that position to the flag.

"The car wasn´t too bad," he said.

"In the first stint it was pretty okay. We were heavier than the McLarens and we knew that they would pull away. Probably the biggest problem was that I could not keep my head up under braking.

"My neck is not in such a great shape after yesterday´s crash in qualifying so that was the main issue. But we just didn´t have the speed."

Raikkonen is now 18 points behind championship leader Hamilton with four races to go.