MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Kimi Raikkonen was unable to explain the thinking behind his pit stop strategy at the Monaco Grand Prix, saying he had to trust in the Ferrari strategists' decision to change tyres when he did.

After securing pole position on Saturday, Raikkonen led Sunday's race until he was called into the pits on lap 34. The stop delivered him straight into backmarker traffic and he lost significant time while teammate Sebastian Vettel continued in clear air at the front of the field. Ferrari kept Vettel out in front until he had a big enough margin over Raikkonen to pit and resume in the lead, which he successfully managed on lap 39.

With Vettel leading the championship and Raikkonen struggling for performance at the first five races, the suspicion after the race was that Ferrari had always intended to switch their drivers if Raikkonen was leading at the end of the first lap. When it was put to Raikkonen that he could have stayed out longer and ignored the pit call, he said he had to have faith in the team's decision.

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"I'm a driver, I can do whatever I want, I can stop the car if I want to, but we work as a team and if you don't believe in how they work then it's very complicated," he said. "We always try to work as best as we can.

"As a team we wanted a one-two, we got it, but for my side it could have been better. We'll talk about it, I'm sure there are reasons, as there are for everything in life. As a driver I can do what I want but we work as a team -- as simple as that."

When he was asked directly if he thought Ferrari's strategy had cost him victory, he added: "I haven't seen what happened, I only know what happened when I was in the car but I haven't seen the bigger piucture.

"I only know that I came second, Seb won. The result is great for the team, the rest, until we have our meeting tomorrow and see the graphs, I don't know"