McLaren’s Raikkonen started the rain-hit Japanese event from only 17th, but in the race he had arguably the best pace and by the last lap was just a tenth behind race leader, Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella. As the duo went into Turn One for the final time they were wheel-to-wheel and Raikkonen managed to go round the outside of the Italian and into the lead to seal his ninth F1 victory in spectacular fashion.

Kimi Raikkonen has no regrets over his win-or-bust gamble at the Nurburgring and goes into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal with his world championship ambition burning as bright as ever.

The Finn was all set to close on world championship pacesetter Fernando Alonso when he entered the last lap of the European Grand Prix two weeks ago in the lead.

But he ended the race a further 10 points down after a suspension failure pitched him out of the race.

Vibrations from a damaged tyre caused the accident but McLaren opted to keep Raikkonen on track and in the hunt for victory, rather than make an extra pit stop and claim a safe third place.

Despite leaving Germany with no points from another dominant weekend, Raikkonen is adamant McLaren did the right thing and insists he still has a real chance to claim the title, despite trailing Alonso by 32 points.

Raikkonen, who caused the problem by locking up while lapping a back-marker, said: “In the end we needed to gain more points than Alonso and he was behind me.

“I didn’t see any reason to come in when we were in a position to take two points more than him.


“We took the gamble and it didn’t pay off but I would still do the same thing again.

“I don’t complain to anyone else, it was my mistake and it cost me quite a bit. It’s always easy to say afterwards that if I had braked earlier it wouldn’t have happened.”

On his championship chances, Raikkonen added: “We got some points back [with wins in Spain and Monaco] but it’s not easy to gain much back because they keep finishing races.

“There are many races to go so anything can happen. As long as we keep finishing races ahead of him there is still a chance.

“It was never going to be easy but we have to do our best.”

Raikkonen is convinced his McLaren is still the car to beat this weekend in Montreal.

The Finn has been the fastest man on track for the last four races, with engine and tyre problems respectively denying him certain victory in San Marino and Nurburgring, and he believes that advantage will continue in Canada this weekend.

“We had a very good test last week,” he said.

“The car is quick, better than it was in the last race. I am pretty hopeful the car will be good here.

“For sure the car will be good in the United States because every car we have made has been good there.

“Here is more of a question mark but I don’t see why we shouldn’t be competitive here.

“I think Renault are a very reliable package but we have at least as good car as they have, we can fight against them.

“Hopefully we are stronger at every point than they are but we shall see.”

Rain is predicted over the weekend in Montreal but Raikkonen is confident even the Canadian weather cannot derail his bid for a third win of the season.

McLaren’s Michelin tyres have struggled in wet weather but Raikkonen helped test new designs recently and, even though he concedes Bridgestone still possess a slight advantage, he is not concerned at reports of thunderstorms throughout the three-day weekend.

He added: “I think the intermediate tyres are pretty good.

“We have had some opportunities to use them and they seem as quick as the Bridgestone.

“I think the full wets are not on the same level but they are improving all the time – it depends how much water is on the circuit.

“I don’t think we should have any major problems even if it rains.”

Source

There are reports in Germany this morning that Kimi Raikkonen has signed an option to join Ferrari in 2007. This option is almost certainly dependent on whether or not Michael Schumacher is still with the team or whether the German retires or moves to another F1 operation. The signs are that Schumacher will not retire and, given a story in the same newspaper on the previous day, wants more money from Ferrari. This suggestion would seem to negate the second story as Raikkonen is unlikely to go to Ferrari while Michael is still there.

What is clear from all of this is that the leaks in the German press are part of the negotiating process but what is not clear is who is leaking what to whom. What it all means is probably not yet decided but the stories are designed to sway the opinions of those involved. It could be that Ferrari does not want to pay Michael what he wants and so is leaking Raikkonen stories. At the same time stories linking Michael with McLaren could be just scare tactics to get Ferrari to cough up.

When a deal is done we will know.

It is worth noting that back in July, Ron Dennis made the point of telling the F1 media that Kimi Raikkonen would be best served staying where he is as most of the World Champions in the last 20 years have been successful because they have not jumped around between the teams. This is a fair point, but why did Ron feel the need to mention it?

[source]

Räikkönen has been particularly disappointed in this season's results.

"Naturally I'm upset as I'm losing the title for a second time", he says.

"Currently the point margin is even bigger than it was in 2003. This year we had a car which could have potentially enabled us to win races and take the championship, whereas in 2003 the car wasn't really competitive. However back then it was our reliability that allowed us to climb up the points. If anything, this year has been a bigger disappointment, considering all the potential we had back in March."

One would think that Räikkönen's public image is causing him even more grief than the probable failure to win the drivers' title.

Numerous stories of binges and "tired and emotional" behaviour have created an image of a driver who drinks at every opportunity.

When Michael Schumacher commented at a press conference in Spa that he would like to have a drink with Räikkönen, the gathering of journalists burst out laughing as everybody pictured them both legless.

Räikkönen is likely to carry the reputation of a heavy drinking driver for the rest of his driving career. But how does it make him feel?

"At the beginning of my career I was very disappointed in the way the papers wrote about me. I still am, but I refuse to let it change my life. Even if the stories contain a grain of truth, they're solely used to sell papers. I read the stories and laugh at them", Räikkönen says.

"It doesn't seem to matter what I have in my glass, as everybody always assumes I'm drinking alcohol. I've been in a nightclub on several occasions and behaved myself, but on the following morning I've read from the papers that I've been thrown out of this or that nightclub. Many people get bitter if I don't sign autographs, and they know people who write these stories. However, I refuse to let these things destroy my life."

Räikkönen has been a celebrity for five years, ever since he broke into Formula One as a much-hyped child prodigy.

Yet somehow it seems that he still hasn't quite accepted his status.

Hence the question must be asked: when comparing your life with the lives of your friends out of the spotlight, are you tempted to swap places?

"If I could choose, I'd be a normal person but I know it's not possible", Räikkönen replies. "In many ways it would be ideal if I could be an F1 driver but lead a normal life. When I go out with my wife or my friends there's always somebody bothering me at the very moment I want to be left alone."

Räikkönen doesn't accept the claim that publicity is one of the very factors that make Formula One drivers the royalty of motor sports.

"My life isn't what the papers make it out to be", Räikkönen states. "I still do things that I like and if the papers choose to write about them, well, let them do so."

Räikkönen's relationship with the media is precisely the same as with everything else he regards as irrelevant to his driving: he just tries to block it out of his mind.

"However, there's a limit to everything", he says, and he is referring to a recent piece published in the German magazine AutoBild motorsportmagazine.

The story claimed that Räikkönen was blind drunk and ran naked through the gardens of Monza during a test session at the Italian track.

The same story was also published in Finland, yet nobody seemed to think such behaviour would have been distinctly unlikely during a two-day stint testing his McLaren-Mercedes.

"In this case the magazine ran the story without even bothering to find out if the rumours they heard had any truth to them", Räikkönen says.

"We're thinking of suing the paper in order to put a stop to articles of this sort being published."

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.9.2005

Räikkönen won at Spa on Sunday, but it did not help his cause very much: Fernando Alonso finished second and the gap between the two men remained a daunting 25 points.

(end)

Q: Kimi, a sensational win from you from 17th on the grid, first of all talk us through the first lap, I think a bit of contact with your team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya.

“Yeah, there was quite a lot happening in the first and second corner so I was turning into the second corner and Montoya touched me on the rear wheel a little bit and got sideways and he got past me but luckily enough we didn’t damage our cars, so it was alright. The first lap was quite exciting but I ran wide in the chicane and then unfortunately for him he something happened to him and he went off but otherwise it was a good race.”

Q: Then some sensational competition and Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.

“Yeah, I was behind them but unfortunately we had a slight problem with the gearing and seventh gear was a little bit too short and every now and then when I got really close I started to hit the rev limiter so it was very difficult to get past people but in the end the car started to get better and better all the time and we were able to catch up in the later part of the race.”

Q: Well it looked like a phenomenal move at the end there on Giancarlo, talk us through that.

“Yeah, just before my last pit stop I was able to go fast and I pulled out a bit of a gap and I was not too far behind any more when I came out so I thought maybe I would have a chance to catch him up and try to overtake and just into the last lap I was able to get him on the main straight and then I started to hit the rev limiter again but I just went as quickly as I could outside on the first corner and luckily I made it through, so it was very good.”

Q: Obviously it was a disappointment not securing the Drivers’ Championship but how does this race rank in your mind in terms of enjoyment and achievement?

“Of course, it was much more difficult than any other of my wins but in one way it is much nicer when you have to fight for it. So it is one of the best ones. It was great, you know, with all the problems in practice with the engine, then the ten-place penalty and all the problems in qualifying with the weather. We were still able to win and now we have a perfect place for qualifying in the last race.”

Q: Kimi, what are your thoughts going into China. With the Constructor’ Championship as close as it is, it is going to be a tense finale to the season.

“Yeah, it is going to be a nice race for both teams I think. Last year our car was pretty quick there and I quite like the circuit, so for sure we will try to win the race and hopefully we can win the championship too for the team. We just need to do the best we can and we will see at the end of the race what happens.

Q: Kimi, how does that win rate for you?

“I think it is one of the best for sure, maybe the best one, because I really had to fight for it and after all the problems we had this weekend, it was very nice.”

Q: It certainly looked fantastic from outside, what was it like inside?

“Yeah, there was quite a lot happening during the race all the time. There was traffic and I was not really able to run at my own speed, in the clean air, only at the end. It was exciting with some nice overtaking and it is always nice when you can fight like this.”

Q: You and Fernando had fantastic opening laps, were you a little bit more held up than Fernando?

“Actually I went a little bit straight in the last chicane, I tried to overtake in some places and then the safety car came out. Montoya touched me a bit at the rear tyre, so I got sideways and lost a place from him but apart from that it was pretty okay.”

Q: And behind Michael as well.

“Yeah, after the pit stop I was able to get past him. He made a little mistake and I was quicker than him on the main straight but I had a little bit too short seventh gear, so I was hitting the limiter.”

Q: And then the vital later second stop got you past Webber and Button.

“Yeah, I was quicker than them but I was just closing up and I was not able to get a good run on them and I knew they were going to stop before me, so I had two laps to really push and try to gain time. I was able to pull a little bit away from them and then after the last pit stop I saw that he was not so far away and there were seven laps to go, so I went as quickly as I could and luckily I caught him on the last lap and got past him.”

"For me, the ideal would be to drive in Formula 1 and enjoy a normal life"

By Juha Päätalo in Spa-Francorchamps

When it comes down to it, who is Kimi Räikkönen?

Perhaps the fastest driver in Formula One racing at the moment? Maybe, but he is still probably not going to take the 2005 Drivers' World Championship, because his McLaren-Mercedes car has let him down too many times this season, while Fernando Alonso's Renault keeps on going and delivers podium positions to its driver with Swiss-watch regularity.

Or is Räikkönen "Finland's biggest A-list celeb"? Undoubtedly that, too. But this is a role Räikkönen would gladly surrender.

The biggest star in Finnish sport right now? Probably, yes. Aki Hintsa, the personal physician to the 25-year-old from Espoo regards Räikkönen as a once-in-a-century find: a sporting gold nugget the size of your fist.

"Räikkönen's ability to conceptualise three-dimensional space is quite out of this world. His test results are off the chart, quite the best I have ever seen", says Hintsa with more than an ounce of admiration in his voice.

Räikkönen just shrugs, however, as he sits in the pit area at the Spa track. He has no truck with test-results.

"Aki is a doctor and he doesn't know anything about driving", laughs Räikkönen during our interview.

"As long as I'm going fast in a car, I really don't think too much about what it is I'm seeing."

This is nevertheless precisely the response Hintsa expected Räikkönen to offer up. "Kimi is very reluctant to draw attention to himself. However, he is incredibly observant."

Räikkönen's way of thinking is very straightforward. When the conversation turns to Alonso and to the fact many consider him [Räikkönen] to be the faster driver of the two, Räikkönen finds little consolation in this.

"I want to win", he says. "And if somebody other than me wins the Drivers' World Championship, nothing that people think of me can change that. The driver who has the most points at the end of the season is the new champion. Simple as that."

(end of part I)