MONACO, May 27 - Kimi Raikkonen kept his spirits up on Sunday after being lapped and losing more ground to his Formula One rivals in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Finn finished eighth, taking just one meagre point while McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso led rookie team mate Lewis Hamilton to a dominant one-two victory to go 15 points clear after five of 17 races.

"We knew we were facing an uphill battle and that's how things turned out," said Raikkonen, who had dealt his chances a big blow when he qualified 16th after damaging his car on Saturday.

The Ferrari driver, with his now-retired predecessor Michael Schumacher watching as a spectator, moved up to 12th after the first lap but his afternoon after that was a grind as he struggled with traffic.

A winner in Monaco with McLaren in 2005, he was lapped by Alonso at the half distance.

"I never had a clear track ahead of me and it was only thanks to the strategy that I was able to make up some more places and get into the points," said Raikkonen. "But I couldn't do any better.

"Obviously the situation in the classification is now a bit more complicated but there is still a long way to go in the championship and I am not the sort to give up."

Raikkonen's Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, winner of the last two races, finished third and remains third overall and five points adrift of joint leaders Alonso and Hamilton.

McLaren lead Ferrari by 20 points in the constructors' championship.

"We must congratulate those who, today, were quicker than us and work to get back to being competitive at the highest level right from the start of the two consecutive races in Canada and the USA," said team boss Jean Todt in a statement.