Raikkonen not ready to help Massa's title challenge

World champion Kimi Raikkonen said he was not yet thinking about helping Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa despite his own title ambitions looking all but over following yesterday's Italian Grand Prix.

With four races left this season, the fourth-placed Finn is 21 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton after trailing in ninth at a soggy Monza.

Brazilian Massa, who finished sixth and a place ahead of McLaren's Hamilton, is now just a point behind the Briton overall.

"I don't know, we will see what happens," Raikkonen told reporters when asked if he would now concentrate on aiding Massa's title charge.

"I'm not really interested in thinking what we are going to do in the next races."

The 'Iceman', who signed a new deal with Ferrari until 2010 during the week, snatched last year's title by a point and refused to give up this time.

"It is not good but we'll keep trying and hoping to do better in the next races. It hasn't been so easy lately," he said, blaming the failure of his tyres on the wet Monza track for his disappointing showing.

"The car was good when the tyres started to work but in the beginning there was not much grip. If we could get the tyres working straight away it would be a big help," Raikkonen said.

Massa agreed that Ferrari's tyres did not assist them, especially when other drivers profited from being on a one-stop strategy.

"It's been a hard race. Definitely it could have gone better at the end. I started sixth and I was fourth after the first pit stop.

"It was difficult to choose strategy before the race. We chose a strategy that was not too aggressive because of the rain," Massa said.

The Brazilian dodged questions about whether Raikkonen should now be helping his bid for the title.