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"This short break comes at the right time,"
says Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, "We have to
recharge our batteries after six months of
giving it all, racing and testing, so we're
ready for the next race and for the finale
of the season." |
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"This short
break comes at the right time," says Kimi Raikkonen, "We
have to recharge our batteries after six months of
giving it all, racing and testing, so we're ready for
the next race and for the finale of the season. The
situation in the Championship is not too bad: obviously
one can always improve and this is exactly what we want
to do.
"The Hungarian weekend was quite disappointing for me:
the only positive thing is the result. Whenever you're
able to narrow the gap to the leader it's very
important. I gained more points than any other of my
direct competitors, which is pretty positive as well
before this short break. I'm going to Finland to chill
out a bit, although the weather forecast is not really
good.
"I don't want to deny that the last races didn't go as I
wanted. Every time something strange happened and we
didn't manage to find the best possible set up for the
car. We tried to find a good compromise, but it didn't
help. We've got to solve that problem now for the
upcoming race at Valencia. The Qualifying was the
decisive moment also at Budapest, in a negative way. In
my second try in Q3 I couldn't keep the car on the
track: that was my fault. You can't pretend to win the
title if you're always starting from the sixth position.
You can even drive one second faster per lap than the
one ahead of you, but if you start from behind you can't
use the pace you've got.
"At the Hungaroring I was stuck behind Alonso, who had a
really good car for the last sector, which was maybe the
only point I could have tried to overtake. Again I had
confirmed that it's impossible to overtake at Budapest.
After the last pit stop I could push hard, because I had
a free track. On the first lap I drove eight tenths of a
second faster. The car went really well and was easy to
handle, but by then it was too late. I managed to catch
up to Glock in the end, but I had a mechanical problem
and I had to slow down.
"Felipe had a great race and demonstrated the potential
we have. Unfortunately for him and for the Team he had
to stop in the final stages of the race. That's the ugly
face of motor sports; and I've experienced that a couple
of times myself in the past.
"Ferrari has been leading in the Constructors'
Championships for several races now: this shows that
we've a better car and lots of potential.
Congratulations to Heikki Kovalainen for his first win
in Formula 1: he had his share of bad luck and now it's
his turn.
"The next race will be held at the new street circuit of
Valencia. I like to discover new tracks: since I was a
child driving in a kart I always learned quickly to
drive on unknown tracks. It will be hot, just like it
was in Budapest, which is something we like, because it
seems that our car adapts easily to the high
temperatures."
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