I want to win, more than ever! - Raikkonen
It hasn't been the easiest season for reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. It has been a very long time that the Ferrari driver was on pole position or won a race and he's dropping fast in the championship standings. Still the Finn remains highly motivated and he wants to win, more than ever.
Kimi Raikkonen said: "It seems as if this year the street circuits don't work out for me. In four races I only got one point, at Melbourne, in a race, I didn't even finish due to an engine failure.
"Then there was the accident with Sutil at Monaco and then the rear-end collision by Hamilton at the exit of the pitlane in Montreal. And now another retirement at Valencia.
"I went to Spain with a good feeling, also because it's always great to have a race in a new place. On Friday it went well for me, but on Saturday temperatures were lower and I had problems in Qualifying: we should have been much more aggressive.
"There has been a lot of talk about my problems in Qualifying. But the truth is, that in a couple of races - at Hungary and Germany - I made some mistakes and I had to start from the sixth position. At Valencia I missed the third position by a whisker. I had to start from the dirty side of the track, which was a huge disadvantage. I couldn't pass the cars in front of me while Heikki had much better grip and overtook me. From that moment on, with the leaders pulling away with one second per lap, I was racing for the fourth place. When you get stuck in traffic on a track like that, there's hardly anything you can do; you just wait for the pit stop. Heikki and I came into the pit at the same time, but then I made a mistake and left too early.
Unfortunately our Pietro Tempini was hit by the car and hurt himself. He's got a microfracture in his left foot, but he's mainly ok. It's nothing serious and I hope that he'll be back at the track with us very soon.
"Not only could I not overtake to gain fourth position, but I even fell back on sixth. As things went, this would have meant at least three points, but then the engine blew, without any warning. I came out of the last corner and I felt that something was wrong. And then smoke came out of the back of the car. We knew that there might be a problem of this kind, after what had happened to Felipe at Hungary. But it's still a shame what happened in Valencia. Having said that it's useless to cry over spilled milk: what happened, happened and now we have to look ahead.
"This week I'll be at Monza for a test day on Friday 29th. Next week we'll go to Spa. I love this track. I'd like to race there all the year round. It's the best of the all the track and I hope that I'll have a car that works the way I want. I'll give it all to win again. If someone has doubts as far as my motivation is concerned: go ahead. I want to win. More than ever!"
