Kimi Raikkonen insists his accident with Fernando Alonso that took the Spaniard out of the Japanese Grand Prix was unavoidable.
The two touched as they squabbled over track position heading into the first corner and Alonso's rear left tyre was punctured.
That resulted in the Spaniard spinning into the gravel and out of the grand prix. Alonso later stated that Raikkonen should have backed off.
The Lotus driver, though, says he had nowhere to back off to.
"I was on the left hand side all the way since the very beginning of the start," said Raikkonen.
"He kept coming left more and more. I tried to go further left but I had nowhere to go.
"They all came over on my side and touched my front wing so I couldn't go anywhere else."
The 2007 World Champ went on to finish in sixth place, earning an addition eight points towards his title campaign and is now just 37 behind Alonso with five races remaining.
"The good thing is we still managed to score points to stay in touch in the Championship.
"Sixth wasn't the result we were hoping for but unfortunately we didn't have the speed to do better."
