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Kimi
Raikkonen is predicting a season-long tight battle for the
championship following the first two rounds of the 2008 season.
The Ferrari driver dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix last Sunday,
while rivals McLaren were unable to fight on top after being hit
by penalties in qualifying.
A
week earlier, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had taken a commanding win
in Australia while Ferrari had a weekend to forget.
"This
is going to be a very tight battle all year long," wrote Kimi
in a column on his personal website. "As I said before the
first race, this season is very long. Now we have just started,
and nobody can say what happens next. Obviously, we have a winning
car. While everything works well, we have the speed to win races.
We just need to get qualifying in a better shape. When the
qualifying performance is there, it also helps a lot for the
race."
He
added: "Obviously, it was great to win again. I've got a
really nice feeling while flying back home after the race on
Sunday. The race was run exactly according to our plan. While we
didn't have any problems, the speed is there. No doubt about that.
Our car is strong enough to take, and to keep the first
place."
Kimi
admitted his win on Sunday had been easy and he claimed he could
have gone faster if needed. "It was an easy victory," he
said. "We just took it really easy and saved the car and
engine for the next race. I could have gone much faster, but there
wasn't any need for that. I won my first ever Grand Prix in
Malaysia too. As I remember, it was also pretty easy back then
five years ago too. It just shows that when the car is working
well, Sepang seems to suit me well."
Kimi
is second in the standings, three points behind Hamilton.
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