Raikkonen eyes podium in Hungary

by - 7/16/2009 09:28:00 p.m.

Kimi Raikkonen is hopeful of challenging for his second podium finish of the season in next week's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Finn believes that the Hungaroring will be well-suited to the Ferrari F60, which is at its most competitive on lower-speed circuits.

"The F60 should run pretty well at the Hungaroring with its many slow corners," said Raikkonen.

"Furthermore, the temperatures should be slightly higher than at the weekend in Germany: it would be great to gain another podium."

Raikkonen added that he was pleased with the progress of development of the F60, although it is still at an aerodynamic disadvantage in high-speed corners.

"I'll show up with a new rear wing, which worked really well on Felipe [Massa's] car and there's the possibility that we'll have further modifications," he said.

"The F60 had some updates [in Germany] and the set up was pretty much ok, but we're still paying a high price in terms of downforce as you could see in some sectors of the track."

The 2007 world champion is keen to put his bad luck in grands prix on German soil behind him.

In 15 F1 starts on German soil, he has finished in the points just four times and never finished higher than third. At the Nurburgring last weekend, he retired with a holed radiator while on course for a points finish.

"There curse that seems to follow me in Germany struck again," said Raikkonen. "I finished races at Hockenheim and the Nurburgring only a few times. Obviously I'm not lucky there."

He was also involved in a collision with Force India's Adrian Sutil as the German rejoined the track from the pit-lane at Turn 1. Raikkonen said that he agreed with the stewards that it was a racing incident.

"He came out of the box while I was on my line," said Raikkonen. "He tried to defend his position on the inside. The cars collided and he lost a bit of his front wing, while the side of mine was slightly damaged.

"With these wide wings it's quite easy to collide and break them. I went with Adrian to meet the stewards and we thought that it was a normal race accident, as indeed did the stewards."

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