A small step forward - Raikkonen

The Scuderia Ferrari scored his first points at the Bahrain International Circuit this weekend as Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen secured sixth place. Despite scoring the teams first and only points, Raikkonen wasn't to thrilled with sixth.

Kimi Raikkonen: "Let’s say that I’m not too thrilled about the sixth place, but considering the circumstances I‘m glad I gained these three points, the first of this season for me and for the Team. It wasn’t a start to the season as we had expected, but that’s how it went. Three points are not much, considering that the Championship’s leader won the race, but it’s still better than nothing. Finally bringing home both cars, we’ve made a small step forward. Now we’re ready to make the most important thing, hoping that it will enable us to fight for the top positions. The race at Sakhir was the hottest of the season. It was really hard work, but I didn’t have any problems: I really liked it, because that means that the hard preparations during the winter bears fruit.

"The F60 did fine in Bahrain, although we lacked some speed. The set up was good, especially with the softer tyres. The trend seems to be confirmed that our cars run better with higher temperatures. A fifth place might have been possible, but we lost some precious seconds due to the small problem during the pit stop, otherwise I would have rejoined in front of Rubens, although then it would have been difficult keeping him under control. I fought with Glock’s Toyota, although I had the harder compound, but my car was faster on the straight; that was enough to keep him behind me.

"I’ve been asked how many points we’ve thrown away in the first races. It’s difficult to reply, but most of all I don’t want to continue talking about the mistakes and the problems we’ve had. As usual we have to look ahead: the past is the past and we can’t change it. The most important thing is now that there is an important development of the car coming up. The Team works an awful lot to improve the performance for the next race at Barcelona, although we know that the others are doing the same. Let’s hope that we can make a bigger step forward than the other teams. If we manage to gain at least three tenths of a second, then we’ll be able to fight for more than just a sixth place.

"Before we start thinking again about the Championship, we’ve got to see what we can do at Barcelona. It’s obvious that the situation is difficult, especially because there is a driver who won three out of four races. Obviously I won’t surrender, but we’ve got to get back on the podium as soon as possible and make the car faster so we’re able to fight for the win as of mid-season. These days I’m following one of my preferred sports: ice hockey. The world championships are held in Switzerland and Finland is playing at an ice rink close to my house. I hope my team will continue to win, as last night against Denmark, the first match I’ve watched. I’ll try to go to the stadium as often as possible: I know several players and I’m really enjoying watching them playing live."