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Kimi
Raikkonen has dismissed suggestions that Ferrari have lost ground,
in performance terms, to McLaren in recent races and claims that
all he needs is a trouble-free weekend.
The
world champion, who shares the lead in the drivers' table with his
teammate Felipe Massa and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, finished
fourth at Silverstone in the rain last weekend after an
error-strewn race.
But
Raikkonen, who missed out on a chance of victory when the team
decided to keep him on old intermediate tyres at a crucial stage
of the race, believes that Ferrari have lost none of their
competitive edge.
"For
sure McLaren will be fast," Raikkonen said during testing in
Hockenheim. "But I think we have a good package and we
haven't lost any speed, we just need to have a good weekend. Of
course we are not so happy with the results we have got. But we
got back in the joint lead of the championship, and probably we
should have got more points but we made a mistake and it happens
in racing. It's not the first time and it's not, unfortunately,
going to be the last time, so it's just part of the game and we
need to learn from it."
Ferrari
dominated the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours last month, but the
McLaren appeared to be the quicker car at Silverstone, against
expectations. But Raikkonen is convinced that Ferrari will come
out fighting in Germany, and warned that they will not let up on
development in their fight for the championships.
"We
have a strong team and we are pushing forward hard," he said.
"Okay people always expect us to win every race, but this is
not so easy. For sure we are going to start winning again soon and
we just keep working hard. It is too early to say [how we compare]
against the others [in Germany], but the feeling with the car is
pretty good and that is always a nice sign. We need to wait until
the race to see really what will happen. But I am quite happy."
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