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Once
again the Nurburgring has been a bitter experience for Kimi
Raikkonen, who had to retire in lap 35, when he had the
possibility to win the race. "From time to time it's really
difficult to understand how hard motor sports can be," Kimi
said when he came back home. "We had everything on our side
for a perfect weekend, but we were unable to bring it to a
conclusion. It was a real pity that I had to retire for the second
time this year. We are not on the floor, but this does not make it
any easier."
"I
don't know why, but it seems that the two German race tracks don't
like me: although I must say that I really like to drive there, at
the Nurburgring and also at Hockenheim! After the pole on Saturday
I was in the position to reverse this negative tradition, but in
the end it just didn't happen. You can't do anything to change
things: let's see if we can make it next year."
"But
I have to say that I was really happy about the pole, my second
this year. The car was very fast over the whole weekend and in Q3
everything went well. On Saturday evening I had a really good
feeling, and then, just a couple of minutes before the start of
the race, we knew that it was going to rain about ten minutes
after the start. But it started earlier and with an unexpected
intensity."
"The
start was fine but after the first half a lap the track was wet.
We were called in for a pitstop, but when I was on the white line
of the pitlane's entrance, the car violently veered and went back
on the track almost by itself. This lap under the heavy rain with
the slicks was really very difficult: I tried to come back in as
fast as possible and at the same time keep the car on the track."
"The
red flag reset the situation and I was still confident of my
possibilities to win. The rain did not play a part at all in my
retirement. I started to have small problems when I was right
behind Alonso, then I just lost the differential and the control
of the accelerator, so I had to stop at the entrance of the
pitlane."
Kimi
does not want to hide his disappointment: "Yes, I'm really
sorry about how the race ended, but that's how it is. What's
certain is that we will not give up: the gap from the top in the Drivers'
championship remains unaltered, although there is one race
less. But we have a real competitive car."
"The
next race is in Hungary, where I started from the pole last year
and two years ago I won ahead of the Ferrari
with Michael. As usual there will be many Finnish tifosi: let's
hope we can celebrate a good result together. Now I'll try to
chill out and relax a bit before the upcoming race at the
Hungaroring. I'll still have another cause for celebration these
days: it's the third anniversary of my marriage with Jenni."
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