Kimi Raikkonen anticipates that Ferrari will once again be fighting for top honours at next weekend's British Grand Prix.



The defending World Champion lies five points behind team-mate Felipe Massa in the Drivers' Championship after backing up a Scuderia one-two in Sunday's French Grand Prix.


Raikkonen had been set for victory until an exhaust problem at half-distance had forced him to relinquish the lead to Massa.


The Finn is now confident Ferrari can follow up their dominant display at Magny-Cours with another such at Silverstone.


Raikkonen, who won last year's British Grand Prix, told Ferrari's website: "We expect to be really competitive at Silverstone.


"This week all the teams will test there ahead of the British GP: I'll drive on Thursday after Felipe has tested two days.


"I like the track and I have fond memories of it: it's good to come here with a car that can fight for the win."


Massa was quickest on day one of the test on Tuesday.



Relief


Raikkonen also admitted he was relieved to cross the finish line at Magny-Cours after his troublesome afternoon.


"I have to admit the it has never been better to see the chequered flag. Once again we proved you should never give up," he said.


"Obviously I'm sorry that I didn't win a race where everything went well in the beginning.


"We have to look at the positive aspects: the team did great work and I gained eight points, although I had a problem, which could have made me retire.


"And now I'm closer to the top than I was after Canada," added Raikkonen, who failed to score points in both Montreal and the preceding Monaco Grand Prix.

Formula 1 World champion Kimi Raikkonen will return to France this weekend hungrier than ever for victory after two consecutive races without points.

Magny-Cours marked the turning point of Raikkonen's 2007 season and he needs another French GP win on Sunday after slipping to fourth, seven points behind new championship leader Robert Kubica.

He said: "I don't remember when I had such a great lust for winning. The last two races were a disappointment, caused by different problems."

Raikkonen was shunted out of the Canadian GP by championship rival Lewis Hamilton in a pit-lane collision and himself smashed into the back of Adrian Sutil's Force India in the closing stages of the Monaco GP while in fifth'I think things will look really different at Magny-Cours compared to the last GPs' - Raikkonen.

Raikkonen was 26 points behind McLaren's Hamilton when they arriving at Magny-Cours in 2007 and hadn't been on the podium for four races. His French GP win was followed immediately by another in Britain and at the end of the year Raikkonen took the title by a single point.

He said: "I think things will look really different at Magny-Cours compared to the last GPs.

"It was here in France in 2007 that my season practically started all over again – and that's what I need now after the two races with no points.

"I like this track and I think it's perfect for our car. I think we'll be competitive and that we can go for the maximum result."

Raikkonen's main rival is likely to be his team mate Felipe Massa, who started on pole position at Magny-Cours in 2007 and is now three points ahead of him – and level with Hamilton - in the standings'Nobody gets to the top of the F1 Drivers' World championship by accident' - Thiessen.

Kubica, the first Pole and the first BMW Sauber driver to win a GP, won't give up his lead easily and will also be a podium contender.

BMW Sauber team boss Mario Theissen said: "Nobody is at the top of the F1 Drivers' World championship after seven races by accident – we certainly won't be taking our foot off the gas now."

Hamilton led the championship until his embarrassing gaffe in Montreal but will be less of a threat at Magny-Cours after stewards imposed a 10-place penalty on the starting grid for ploughing into Raikkonen's stationary car while the Finn waited for the pit lane exit light to change.

Despite that, he believes he can still win on Sunday.

He said: "Mentally it's just something that you learn to overcome quickly.

"It certainly won't affect my preparations; we've already looked at the best ways of optimising the strategy to help us move up the field.

"I guess I'll just have to pass some cars if I want to get into the points." – Reuters

Sir Jackie Stewart had laid the blame for Lewis Hamilton's embarrassing collision with Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane at the Canadian Grand Prix partly at McLaren's door, saying the team should have discussed the pit stop with Hamilton beforehand.

Hamilton ploughed into the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari while the defending World Champion and Robert Kubica were waiting at a red light in the pit lane, taking both the McLaren and the Ferrari out of the race and earning Hamilton a 10-place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix.
And although Stewart concedes that Lewis' inexperience - it is only his second season in F1 - did play a role in the accident, some of the responsibly lies with the McLaren team.

"It comes down to inexperience. It could only be expected. He has only been in Formula 1 for 15 months," Stewart told the Daily Mail.

"In Canada it was all about the failure of mind-management. I understand the team told him over the radio that the red light was on and the pit-lane closed on exit.

"If you are in the lead, the pace car comes out and you need to go into the pits, all sorts of things go through your head.

"Inexperience means you don't have the focus, the single-minded, clear-headed through process when something like that happens.

"I don't know precisely what they told him over the headset. Given his lack of experience, they should have talked him up the pit lane. Not just 'the red light's on' but 'slow down, slow down, Kimi has stopped'.

"McLaren are used to having experienced drivers, so maybe they assumed more of Lewis than was fair. The fact that he had been passed in the pits by Kimi and Robert Kubica might have taken his concentration away.

"He will make mistakes. And this one cost him the grand prix of Canada. I believe the race was his. His pace was such, and even by the time his and Kimi's race ended on lap 17 he had established a useful lead."

[source]

Kimi Raikkonen believes Lewis Hamilton got the penalty he deserved following their crash at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The British McLaren driver will lose ten places on the grid in France after crashing into the back of his Ferrari rival's car at the end of the pitlane in Montreal.

Although Hamilton said the penalty was harsh, Raikkonen in fact reckons the Briton deserved it.

"I still can't believe it, that someone can hit you while you are standing at the red light next to another car," said Raikkonen. "I can't imagine how Hamilton could not see the red lights and the two cars standing in front of him.

"I think that Hamilton deserved the penalty. He loses ten positions on the grid for the next race in France, which will make it more difficult for him at Magny-Cours."

He added: "Anyway we lost the possibility to have a good result in Canada. At the moment when the safety car came on the track, my car was running very fast: we could have won, or, in the worst case, come second.

"I was ready to fight and overtake Kubica, once the lights were green. But I didn't have the time, as Hamilton crashed into my back and the race was over. I'm not angry. Just disappointed, surprised and frustrated at the same time. He knew that the lights were red.

"Accidents happen, but it's difficult not to see two cars stopped."

The Finn has not scored a point in the last two races and has dropped from first to fourth in the standings.

But Raikkonen is adamant that Ferrari are strong and that he will return to winning ways soon.

"I came back from Montreal with a really good impression of the F2008 and I'm sure that we can win again very soon," he said. "Because now we go to circuits where we are usually very strong.

"You know that I don't like to look behind: I'm concentrated on the French GP, where I want to repeat last year's result, when we brought home a wonderful one-two win."

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Kimi Raikkonen has lambasted McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for the pit-lane accident that ended both of their races at the Canadian Grand Prix.


Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen is far from happy after Lewis Hamilton pushed him out of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's McLaren rammed into the back of world champion Raikkonen's Ferrari as the Finn and Robert Kubica, the race's eventual winner, were waiting at a red light after the safety car was forced into action on lap 17.

Raikkonen, while claiming not to be angry, was clearly far from impressed.

"There's not much I can say. My race was ruined by Hamilton's mistake.

"Obviously, anyone can make mistakes, as I did two weeks ago in Monaco, but it's one thing to make a mistake at 200 hundred [miles] per hour but another to hit a car stopped at a red light.

"I'm not angry because that doesn't achieve anything and does not change my result. I am unhappy because I had a great chance of winning."

Raikkonen, who has failed to score points in the previous two races, said he had to start winning again.

"There is still a long way to go in the championship and it is still very close and we have everything we need to regain the ground we have lost."

Ferrari team sporting director Stefano Domenicali said Hamilton had made a "serious mistake."

"I think the penalty imposed by the FIA [Hamilton was given a 10-place grid penalty for the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours] is in line with it, even if it does not restore what was a lost opportunity for us.

"Kimi was in an excellent position to fight for the win"

Hamilton, for his part, was apologetic.

"I don't know what happened to be honest," Hamilton said. "I was comfortably in the lead, it was looking like an easy win. Then I went in for the pit stop. It was not a good stop and I saw the two guys in front of me battling in the pit lane.

"I saw the red light but by that time it was a bit late. It was not exactly a racing incident as such, it was unfortunate. It was one of those things. It is different to if you crash into the wall and you are angry. It is not like that. I apologize to Kimi for ruining his race."

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen have retired from the Canadian Grand Prix after the McLaren crashed into the rear of the Ferrari in the pit lane. Raikkonen had stopped for a red light at the pit exit when Hamilton piled into the back of the Finn. Williams' Nico Rosberg then ran into the rear of Hamilton.

Rosberg was able to rejoin the race, pitting for a new nose a lap later, but Raikkonen's and Hamilton's cars were too badly damaged to continue. The incident is being investigated by the stewards.

The three drivers were among several who had pitted when the pit lane opened during an early safety-car period to clear the stricken Force €ndia of Adrian Sutil. Hamilton had been leading the race up until that point.

Kimi Raikkonen: "Good enough speed to win here" : -

In a new Media Centre, part of a major refurbishment of the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal, Kimi Raikkonen was one of the first drivers to meet the press, in this afternoon's official FiA Press Conference. In typical Kimi style, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver quickly dismissed the last race, when asked about the Monaco Grand Prix. "As I said before, it's one of the races that didn't really work out. I got no points from there. But, it's in the past and hopefully we will have better results here."

The Finn was far more forthcoming when asked about the challenge of tackling this unusual and low downforce circuit in the post-electronic aids age. "I guess it's going to be more difficult than in the past years but probably we at Ferrari have a better car than last year," reckoned Raikkonen. "It really depends on how well you get your car working but I don't think it's going to be quite as different as everyone expects. People thought that every circuit this year should be more difficult, but there hasn't been a major issue, nor much difference speed-wise. I guess the first few laps on Friday are going to be quite slippery but once we get some rubber down it should help."

One journalist pointed out that Raikkonen has finished every race here in the points, including one tough drive from twentieth to sixth and the Scuderia driver admitted this track suited him: "I like the place but usually something always goes wrong or happens, but still we have been able to finish the races and score points, but hopefully we will have a good weekend and not really have any mistakes or problems. I would expect that we should have good enough speed to try to win here so we will see what happens."

Although Kimi failed to score in the last race, thus slipping off the top of the Leader Board, he did not feel that this made this race particularly important. "Of course we would rather score maximum points than losing any more points to Lewis but there's still a long way to go and we've been in much worse positions before," he maintained. "It's not vital but for sure we want to have a good result.

The championship always ends up very close between the top drivers, top teams, but nobody knows. It's close and hopefully we can come back and be in the front when it counts. But I don't feel any pressure. We won the title last year and this time last year we were in a much worse position. One bad race doesn't really make any difference. OK, we lost the lead, we could have easily taken a few more points but it didn't happen, so we come here and try to do better and try to get back in the lead."

Raikkonen also felt that his lack of points in Monaco did not mean the team were in a similar situation to this time last year. "For sure we were much stronger in Monaco, but with all the circumstances that happened for us and all the things didn't really go the way we were planning," he explained. We expect to be stronger here again than last year. Things can easily go wrong or right. If things go right, I don't see any reason why we cannot win here. It's too early say, but that's what we're aiming for and then we will see what happens after this race."

And the inevitable final question about rumours that the reigning world champion would hang up his helmet at the end of next year. "There's been rumours like that for many years," said Kimi with a smile. "I always say that I still have a contract until the end of next year. I haven't made any decision as to whether I will keep going or not after that. So far, that's the last contract that I have and we will see during this year and next year what happens."

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that his failure to score points in Monaco came as “a staggering blow”, but the Finn claims that he has put his Principality pain behind him ahead of Sunday’s Canadian GP.

Reigning world champion Raikkonen was replaced at the top of the Drivers’ standings by Lewis Hamilton after only managing ninth place in Monte Carlo last Sunday week.

The pressure is now on Kimi to bounce back in Montreal and, happily for Ferrari fans, he is confident of doing just that.

”Monaco has been left behind: it was a staggering blow, but there's nothing we can do about it,” he mused.

”I had a lot of trouble to find the right grip on the wet track and we have to find out how that could happened, because usually I like driving under these conditions.

”I didn't like it at all to come in ninth, hence without points. It was the first race of the season where I couldn't gain any points and we can't have another one like that, because the fight for the championship is extremely fierce.

"The preparations specifically for the Canadian GP were planned for the last day at Le Castellet, where we had some tests. Unfortunately it rained that day and we couldn't do much - but we're all on the same level now. Ferrari has a great tradition in Canada and I expect that it will be really balanced there,” he reasoned.

Indeed, Raikkonen does nothing think there will be much to choose between Ferrari and title rivals McLaren for the rest of the season.

"I said at the beginning of the season that I expect the title to be assigned at the last moment,” he pointed out.

”A third of the season has passed, we have 35 points and we are on the second place. It's more or less what I expected.

”Nothing has been won and nothing has been lost. There is no point in panicking after the race at Monaco, because compared to last year the situation is much better.

”I won't change anything in my approach for the upcoming weekend. The designated target is to win and we will give our best."