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Kimi
Raikkonen is keeping his fingers crossed that forecasts of bad
weather for this weekend's German Grand Prix are wrong, as he
prays for the hot weather that will allow his Ferrari to shine at
Hockenheim.
The
F2008 is widely believed to be much gentler on its tyres than main
championship rival McLaren's MP4-23 - meaning it should not only
be more consistent over race distances but also will not suffer
too much tyre degradation when temperatures are high.
However,
on the flipside, it means the more aggressive MP4-23 is better
able to get heat into its tyres over one lap - and can be stronger
when the temperatures are cooler. That is why Raikkonen wants
Hockenheim to be as warm as possible – even though forecasts are
for showers throughout the weekend.
"I
hope it will be hot, as it usually is at Hockenheim," said
Raikkonen in his Ferrari preview to the event. "Our car goes
really well at high temperatures and also the tyre-wear is not too
high. So I really hope it will be hot. It's hard to overtake, but
the qualifying doesn't determine the result as (much as) on other
tracks: although starting from the first row will make life much
easier."
Raikkonen
remains positive about his and Ferrari's championship challenge,
despite the disappointments of Monaco, Canada and Britain.
"I've
always said that the championship will be very uncertain," he
explained. "I had the possibility to win the last three races,
but for one reason or the other things didn't go the right way:
but that's racing and I'm sure I'll win again soon. Every point
will be important, just like last year. Three drivers tied on the
top spot and a fourth, who is two points behind: that's a very
interesting situation."
He
added: "We've done some testing here last week and it went
pretty well. We tried some new components and judging by the lap
times there is still a great balance, but I think that Ferrari
will be very competitive and fight for the win. I had some really
good impressions of the F2008: I'm convinced that we'll be at the
max."
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