FUJI SPEEDWAY, Japan, Sept 30, 2007 (AFP) - Ferrari were not informed of an FIA decision to make all the teams start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix tyre with extreme weather tyres until after the race had started.

Despite the torrential rain in Fuji, Ferrari decided to begin on normal wet tyres and both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were forced to pit with the safety car on track to avoid exclusion from the race.

The enforced pitstops sent the pair to the back of the field and, although both fought back brilliantly, they never had a realistic hope of challenging Lewis Hamilton for the win.

"We did not receive email notification of the stewards decision until after the race had started," a Ferrari spokesperson said.

"We then were told over the radio that we had to change the tyres, and that if we did not we would be black-flagged.

"There is nothing we can do now. There was a lack of communication, and that is why we took the decision to go with the standard wet tyre."

Raikkonen went on to claim third place and only some stout defence from his Finnish countryman Heikki Kovalainen prevented him taking second. Massa pitted four times in all and finished sixth, ending his title challenge.

"After the race I heard there were some rules to force everyone to start on full wets but the FIA or race control forgot to tell our team. That forced us to pit behind the safety car. It cost us but not a lot," Raikkonen said.

"Then I tried to overtake Heikki (Kovalainen). Actually I got past him but went too fast and he got past me back. The biggest problem was to see the circuit and the cars. At least we got something out of it.

"I aquaplaned off a few times but I kept coming back. We had the car set up for the dry so it was not perfect for the wet.

"I thought we had a good car. If you are in front it is much easier. We could have gone faster. We lost points to Lewis again but we could not do much after that first pitstop."