Just like all
the other Formula One drivers, Kimi Raikkonen also started a
short holiday break, made possible by the short break on the
race calendar after the Hungarian GP. Yesterday Kimi
participated in a media event, organized by Shell in
Helsinki, after which he flew to Pori, where the off shore
platforms used by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico are built.
"Holiday, at last. I guess everybody thinks in the same
way," said Kimi. "Often you just need to leave everything
behind and just think about chilling out. I did not make any
special plans for the next two weeks. I'll just go with the
flow. I'll play some golf, go to the sea, but mainly I will
relax. The summer in Finland is perfect: and it's the right
time to enjoy it. Four races over the last six weeks was
very stressful and I hope that also the team has some time
off now, although I know that they continue to work without
a break in Maranello."
Kimi would have liked to start his summer break with a
victory at the GP in Budapest, but he could only bring home
a second place. "If there was one driver, who should have
not been in front of me, it was Hamilton. The gap between
him and me has grown to 20 points. I raced the whole race on
second position, behind the British driver. I had a really
good race rhythm and a good pace. If I had had a free track,
I could have been much stronger. Before the last lap I
slowed down a bit to build up some space ahead of me for a
hot lap, just to see what time I could have done: we got the
confirmation, that we could have gone faster!" "Hamilton is
a really good driver and he did not commit one error: I was
looking for a chance behind him but he didn't make any
mistake, so I didn't have a possibility to pass him.
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Kimi Raikkonen would have liked to start his summer
break with a victory at the GP in Budapest (above),
but he could only bring home a second place. |
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"We have an excellent car and I think that the
Hungaroring (above) was the only race track so far,"
says Kimi Raikkonen, "where we could have expected
to have a slight disadvantage compared to McLaren." |
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"After the qualifying we knew that we had a strong car, but
at the first pitstop we tried to guess how much fuel McLaren
had put into the car, trying to pass them; but that didn't
work out."
"I don't like races, where I'm stuck behind another car:
that's pretty boring. The Hungaroring is really challenging,
but you have to get the qualifying right and start from the
front to win the race." Although the classification is not
very comfortable, Kimi remains optimistic: "The championship
is not over yet, that's for sure. The gap to the leader has
not changed substantially and we can't give up. We have an
excellent car and I think that the Hungaroring was the only
race track so far, where we could have expected to have a
slight disadvantage compared to McLaren." Whenever we have
won a race, as in Magny-Cours and at Silverstone, we made up
ground. I'm convinced that when we go back onto a similar
track, we can be much more competitive. At Istanbul, Monza
and Spa-Francorchamps, where there are many long straights
and fast corners, we should be able to play out the F2007's
characteristics." "Felipe and I have to try to bring home
some nice one-two wins. I know that it's difficult to win
six races in a row, but we have to try. With a little bit of
luck we can catch the leaders."
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