The stony demeanour said it all for Kimi Raikkonen by the close of the Monaco Grand Prix and, while the Ice Man is renowned for giving nothing away in public, that he was not happy at how his race had panned out was clear. That he was beaten into second by his team-mate Sebastian Vettel was plainly to the German’s advantage in his battle for the Formula One world championship with Lewis Hamilton. That conflict is positively heating up but the suggestion that Ferrari manipulated the strategy to ensure the result suggests a potential cold war within the team.

Passing is always virtually impossible on Monte Carlo’s streets, the more so with this season’s wider cars, and pit tactics were likely to decide the race. Hamilton was already out of the equation, starting from 13th, from which he recovered well to score six points for his seventh place. With the Ferraris one and two off the start line and Raikkonen taking the lead into Sainte-Dévote he looked comfortable out in front and in position to have the priority on strategy. With track position all important at Monaco, that would usually entail staying out as long as possible.

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Ferrari pulled him in earlier than his team-mate, however, and he emerged into traffic. Vettel stayed out and put in some very strong laps in clean air on his older ultrasoft rubber and it was enough to take the lead from the Finn through his stop.

The German’s take on the events was that it had not been arranged by his team. “From the team point of view there was no plan of any team orders or anything,” he said. “When Kimi stopped I was just going flat out as fast as I could. I was surprised when I came out ahead. It worked well for me to stay out longer. We’re racing, we get on well but I can understand that Kimi’s not entirely happy today. He drove well in the first stint and then got the message to go in. You do the pit stop and then you push. Obviously it’s a bad surprise when somebody comes out ahead. I’ll take it, there’s no reason to lie or anything. I’m very happy about it today but I can understand he’s upset.”

The win puts Vettel 25 points clear of Hamilton in the championship after the Mercedes driver, having struggled putting his tyres into their temperature operating window all weekend, had to accept damage limitation as his role here. He and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas remain free to race and Ferrari have said the same applies to their drivers but Hamilton claimed this proved they were now favouring Vettel.

“It’s clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their No1 driver,” he said. “They are pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will maximise all his weekends. In strategy that just doesn’t happen. For the leading car it’s very hard for him to get jumped by the second car unless the team decide to favour the other car – so that is very clear.”

Raikkonen, who has not won a race since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix when he was with Lotus, looked to be more than aware this was a chance that had been manoeuvred out of his hands. “I got the bad end of the story today,” he said. “I mean it’s still second place but obviously it doesn’t count for a lot in my books at least.” Nor was he forthcoming on what rationale the team had for pulling him in when they did, with the data that would have shown there was a risk he would emerge among slower cars. “I don’t know,” he said when asked about the timing. “Obviously I have just finished the race. I have no idea. Obviously they have reasons for whatever we did. It doesn’t matter here or any other race. It’s not up to me to answer that.”

It had not been an inspiring race and Monaco, so often a procession, is likely to remain so in the future with this season’s cars bringing passing all but to a close on the street circuit. Yet it was a huge result for Ferrari and not just in giving their man an entire race win lead in the title race. The Scuderia had not won here since Michael Schumacher took the flag in 2001, a gap the team had longed to fill. It was also the first time they have managed a one-two lock-out since the German Grand Prix in 2010, though that was perhaps not a race they will want to bring to the forefront of people’s memories too soon. That one-two was secured when the team ordered Felipe Massa to move over for Fernando Alonso, to widespread disapproval, and the incident ultimately led to the ban on team orders being revoked since it was impossible to police.

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The result here was not so clearly manipulated and as yet it cannot be proved definitively that they are favouring Vettel. In mitigation Raikkonen’s times were slightly dropping when they called him in. Equally Toto Wolff, the Mercedes director of motorsport, believed the strategy being in Vettel’s favour had been unexpected. “They deserved to win, they had the quickest car out there,” he said. “It wasn’t clear how the tyre would perform, they needed to pit one of their drivers and put them on the supersoft and, as it panned out, the supersoft was not quick enough. Sebastian was able to pull out some stunning laps and that gave him the advantage. I don’t think they saw that coming. It was the right result for the team and the championship but I don’t think it was orchestrated.”

Behind them Hamilton had stayed out of trouble, going long before his stop to claim seventh, in the circumstances a relatively positive result. But he has dropped well behind Vettel in the title fight and this is the second race in which he has been unable to make the tyres work, something he acknowledged could not continue. “Of course I can’t afford another weekend like this, of course not,” he said. “The Ferraris are quick and seem to work everywhere, so these next 14 races are going to be very, very difficult. They have arguably the strongest car all year, like our car last year where it worked everywhere. This car is not working at every place we go to. The more races we do the more we learn and the stronger we get.”

Hamilton and the team badly need a robust response before the next round in Canada on Sunday week if Ferrari are not to ensure Vettel extends his lead further.