Kimi commits future to Ferrari as Hamilton's appeal is slammed by F1 rivals

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Kimi Raikkonen, whose grip on the Formula One title has weakened rapidly in recent weeks, today committed himself to Ferrari until the end of 2010.

Raikkonen chose the Italian Grand Prix at Monza to sign a one-year extension to his contract with Italy's national team that, at £10million a season, had already established him as the highest paid driver on the grid.

By putting pen to paper the Finn effectively ended speculation that he would hang up his helmet either at the end of this season or next year, having given the impression he had become disenchanted with F1.

With Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa also signed to Ferrari until 2010, Raikkonen has ended the hopes of Fernando Alonso driving one of the iconic red cars in the near future.

The double title winner is now expected to seek a move from Renault to either Honda or BMW-Sauber.

Raikkonen celebrated his new deal by setting the fastest time of 1min 23.861sec in the second practice session for Sunday's race, the first session having been washed out by torrential rain.

With the Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld occupying the next two places on the time sheet, the best Championship leader Lewis Hamilton could manage was fourth place.

That was not the only blow to the British driver today.

With officials at the FIA confirming they will consider an appeal from McLaren against the championship leader's demotion from first to third in the Belgian Grand Prix at their Paris headquarters on Monday week, Hamilton found rivals lining up to condemn his driving last Sunday.

If the FIA wanted evidence to support the three stewards who found fault with the manner in which Hamilton overtook Raikkonen at the very next corner after cutting a chicane, despite initially handing the lead back to his rival, they had only to listen to those with an intimate knowledge of Spa.

As it stands, Hamilton goes into the Italian Grand Prix with a lead in the title chase of only two points over Massa, rather than eight were he to have kept a fifth win of the season in Belgium.

But Toyota's Jarno Trulli is among those who believe he would never have been able to overtake Raikkonen on the startline straight at Spa had he driven through the final chicane in the correct manner.

The Italian said: "The rules are very clear. If you cut a chicane and you get an advantage you just have to drop back and in Lewis's case he shouldn't have attacked at the next corner."

It was, perhaps, not surprising that Alonso, who endured a bitter relationship with Hamilton at McLaren last season, should put the boot in.

The Spaniard, who has had his own scrapes with authority, said: "I agree with the stewards this time. Sometimes not but this time, yes.

"Lewis needed to step back, do the chicane properly like Kimi, and then try to overtake on the next lap."

David Coulthard believes the crucial error on Hamilton's part was to attempt to pass Raikkonen by out-braking him on the outside going into the chicane.

Coulthard said: "The race track is defined by the white lines. In Monaco, you don't cut corners, you hit barriers.

"You can argue it was not Monaco, but the driver would have respected the corner if there was a barrier there. Lewis knew there was no barrier so he cut the corner."

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