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Like
all the other F1 drivers, Kimi Raikkonen also started a short
holiday break, made possible by the short break on the race
calendar after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In
Tuesday Raikkonen participated in a media event, organized by
Shell in Helsinki, after which he flew to Pori, where the off
shore platforms used by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico are built.
"Holiday,
at last. I guess everybody thinks in the same way," said
Raikkonen. "Often you just need to leave everything behind
and just think about chilling out. I did not make any special
plans for the next two weeks. I'll just go with the flow. I'll
play some golf, go to the sea, but mainly I will relax. The summer
in Finland is perfect: and it's the right time to enjoy it. Four
races over the last six weeks was very stressful and I hope that
also the team has some time off now, although I know that they
continue to work without a break in Maranello."
Raikkonen
would have liked to start his summer break with a victory at the
GP in Budapest, but he could only bring home a second place.
"If
there was one driver, who should have not been in front of me, it
was Hamilton. The gap between him and me has grown to 20 points,"
Raikkonen explained. "I raced the whole race on second
position. I
had a really good race rhythm and a good pace. If I had had a free
track, I could have been much stronger."
Raikkonen
recorded the fastest lap of the race - a 1:20.047s - on his 70th
and final tour. The Finn explained the reasoning behind it.
"Before
the last lap I slowed down a bit to build up some space ahead of
me for a hot lap, just to see what time I could have done: we got
the confirmation, that we could have gone faster!"
"Hamilton
is a really good driver and he did not commit one error: I was
looking for a chance behind him but he didn't make any mistake, so
I didn't have a possibility to pass him. After the qualifying we
knew that we had a strong car, but at the first pitstop we tried
to guess how much fuel McLaren had put into the car, trying to
pass them; but that didn't work out."
"I
don't like races, where I'm stuck behind another car: that's
pretty boring. The Hungaroring is really challenging, but you have
to get the qualifying right and start from the front to win the
race."
"The
championship is not over yet, that's for sure. The gap to the
leader has not changed substantially and we can't give up. We have
an excellent car
and I think that the Hungaroring was the only race track so far,
where we could have expected to have a slight disadvantage
compared to McLaren. Whenever we have won a race, as in
Magny-Cours and at Silverstone, we made up ground. I'm convinced
that when we go back onto a similar track, we can be much more
competitive."
"At
Istanbul, Monza
and Spa-Francorchamps, where there are many long straights and
fast corners, we should be able to play out the F2007's
characteristics. Felipe and I have to try to bring home some nice
one-two wins. I know that it's difficult to win six races in a row,
but we have to try. With a little bit of luck we can catch the
leaders."
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