Massa’s Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen took a similar stance to Webber, pointing out that open-cockpit cars inevitably expose drivers to some risk of head injuries.

“It was really a very, very unlucky situation where he [Massa] ended up,” said Raikkonen.

“As long as we race with open cockpits our heads are always in the worst place, the first place that’s going to be hit if something’s flying around.

“What happened was really unfortunate but luckily enough he’s more or less okay.

“He’s probably going to be a hundred percent fine in a little time.

“We in the team all hope that he’s going to be fine and come back soon.

“This is a part of racing and we all know that. It’s just a sad thing to happen.”

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh agreed that Massa was the victim of a rogue sequence of events, but insisted there must be no hint of complacency in the sport’s reaction to his accident.

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA
1st Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h 38m23.876s; 2nd Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 1h 38m35.405s; 3rd Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1h38m40.762s

Q: Kimi, it’s been a long time since we had a McLaren versus Ferrari at the front. Tell us about your race.
Kimi Raikkonen: We got a very good start. That definitely helped. We knew before the race we needed to gain some places at the start to be able to fight for the podium. I was only fourth after the first few corners behind Lewis and then he overtook Mark and I could follow Mark and we went at the same time for the first pit stop. Then I don’t know if he had some issues or not and I got past him at the pit stop. After that really I was just driving my own race, trying to catch Lewis. I thought I had the speed for that at one point but then suddenly he started to go the same speed and then a little bit faster. The gap more or less stayed the same the whole time. Then I had some issues on the last pit stop and that didn’t help either but we had a good race. We knew that it would be difficult to challenge for the win right now. We were probably closer than we expected, so even with not such an easy weekend for the team, but we have got some good results, so hopefully that is something we can keep going like this and it is something positive at least this weekend for the team.

Q: Kimi, tell us about the moves you made at the start which came up on the board that will be investigated after the race. How did you see it?
KR: I don’t know about the whole thing, so if you can tell me what it’s about that would be nice.

Q: Off the start line into the first corner and the incident with Vettel?
KR: I haven’t even noticed if I touched somebody. I was in-between, I think, Mark and somebody else but I don’t know what is going on. That is the first time when you told me but I didn’t feel any touching or anything, so I cannot comment on that.


Q: Kimi, first of all you were nearly hit by Mark Webber at the first pit stop; did you see him coming out?
KR: Yeah, I saw when he came out. I took a little bit more space on the left hand side, so I was pretty sure that they would tell him that I was coming. I don’t know how close it was but I saw him and I gave him all the space that I could.

Q: What about your own second stop, you seemed to lose time there?
KR: Yeah, we probably had some problem, and we needed to do a manual pull-away and then it went on to anti-stall, so it was a bit confusing but I just took it easy because I knew that we had enough time from behind, we were not in a hurry, so it took much longer than it should. It’s always a bit difficult if you cannot make a normal proper pit stop with a proper start. When you try to make a manual pull away it can easily go to anti-stall, so that was the issue today.

Q: And generally speaking, how was the car?
KR: It was OK, nothing special. We had some issues in a few places, we knew that before. They had been there almost the whole weekend. We were a bit limited by what we could do this weekend. Overall, we still had good speed but I think we could have had better speed. It’s nice to be second, for the team and for all the people who have put in a lot of effort and it hasn’t been an easy year or an easy weekend with Felipe’s accident yesterday but we need to be happy. We knew that our car was probably not the fastest one but we still got a good result, good points. It was good but not exactly what we wanted. You are never going to be happy unless you’re in first place, Hopefully we can keep up this kind of speed and try to get good podium finishes and hopefully get at least one win this year.

Q: (Ian Parkes - The Press Association) This is to all three of you: I was just wondering how much the day has been overshadowed in some respects, given what has happened to Felipe and his current condition at the moment?

KR: It’s the same story. It was really a very, very unlucky situation where he ended up. As long as we race with open cockpits our heads are always the worst place and the first place that’s going to be hit if there’s something flying around. What happened was really unfortunate but luckily enough he’s more or less OK. He’s probably going to be a hundred percent fine in a little time. We in the team all hope that he’s going to be fine and come back soon. This is a part of racing and we all know that. It’s just a sad thing to happen.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
2008 Qualifying - 6th, 2008 Race - 3rd
“Traditionally this is some sort of a home race for us Finns, because there are so many fellow countrymen on the grandstands. I’ll show up with a new rear wing, which worked really well on Felipe’s car and there’s the possibility that we’ll have further modifications. The F60 should run pretty well at the Hungaroring with its many slow corners; furthermore the temperatures should be slightly higher than at the weekend in Germany: it would be great to gain another podium.”

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."

Kimi Raikkonen fears his championship chances could suffer unless he and Ferrari resolve his qualifying quandary.


Raikkonen has so far been outqualified by team-mate Felipe Massa 7-4, and in particular in the last two grands prix in Germany and Hungary has started a lowly sixth on the grid.

The Finn knows the situation has to change if he is to have any hope of overhauling Lewis Hamilton at the top of the championship standings and retaining his world title.

"We have the speed in the race, but if I can't get qualifying right we are going to end up at every race in the situation I've faced in the last two races," assessed Raikkonen.

"We need to sort it out and get back to the front so we can fight for the wins, otherwise we are just following people, and when you do that you can't use the speed.

"The car seems to be working well. We just need to find a good set- up again, to fix a few problems and then we can be back in the hunt for wins."

Despite his problems and the fact he has not won for seven races, the 28-year-old only trails Hamilton by five points.

Fortune was certainly on his side at the Hungaroring yesterday as his two main title rivals encountered trouble.

Hamilton suffered a puncture that resulted in him finishing fifth, whilst Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa was cruising to victory when his engine blew three laps from the finish.

Appreciating the luck, Raikkonen added: "It's been a bit difficult for me in the last few races, but we are still in the championship.

"Despite my problems, finishing third yesterday and scoring more points than the guys in front of me in the championship was not too bad a result. I will take it any way I can get it.


"We will see how we can sort things out for the next race and see if we can be stronger and fight for the victory.

"There are still many races to go, we're there in the championship, so I'm not too worried about things."