Raikkonen loses 10 places on grid

Kimi Raikkonen is counting the cost of Friday's engine failure in practice after being relegated 10 places to 13th on the grid for the French Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver, second in the championship behind Fernando Alonso, who starts from pole, was penalised 10 places for having to change engines.

"The weekend started in the worst way it can. From that point on we knew it was not going to be easy," he said.

"It's very difficult to gain any points on Fernando."

Despite the Renault driver's 22-point advantage and Alonso having won five races already this season, Raikkonen said the championship was still wide open.

For me, it's absolutely not the right rule Norbert Haug Mercedes boss

"Hopefully we can get some good points to not drop too far away as there are many races to go and many things can still happen," he said.

"I still think this weekend we can get close to the podium.

"I think we are in a strong position even if we are starting from the back, for sure we can score some good points."

Mercedes boss Norbert Haug, whose company supply McLaren's engines, criticised the rule that cost Raikkonen third place on the grid.

"For me, it's absolutely not the right rule," Haug said.

"If you have a problem in any other technical part, you are not penalised, so I do not quite understand why you should be penalised for an engine failure. But it is what it is."