Iceman Aims To Grab German Win|Valencia Track Revealed

Reuters – Raikkonen calm as usual despite winning streak

Kimi Raikkonen may drive a red-hot Ferrari but the Finnish Iceman stays ice cool when it comes to expressing any emotions.

Raikkonen has won the last two races with the Italian team to move within striking distance of McLaren’s championship leader Lewis Hamilton at the midway point of the season.

But the driver with "Iceman" on his helmet still sounded as modest as ever when talking about the season even though he has the fastest car at the moment in the world’s fastest sport.

"It’s nice to win but it hasn’t changed anything," the 27-year-old told reporters ahead of Sunday’s European Grand Prix. "It hasn’t changed me as a driver or a person."

Raikkonen, who has won more races this month than all of last season at McLaren, has climbed to within 18 points of Hamilton and six of world champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren in second place with victories in France and Britain.

"I had some points in the last two races," he said, referring to his back-to-back victories in a voice barely above a whisper.

"The car works better for me now," he added. "That’s the only difference. I seem to be getting more out of the car than before. But, otherwise, everything is the same."

Raikkonen sounded the same as in previous years at the European Grand Prix when he was plagued by misfortune.

He never raised his voice or even got mad despite appalling misfortune with McLaren during the race in 2003 and 2004, when he was forced to retire while leading near the end.

"I don’t have very good results here," said Raikkonen in another understatement. "Something always happened. Some unfortunate things always happened to me at all the German races. But it’s a nice circuit. I like the circuit, myself."

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Valencia unveils circuit plans

The Valencia government unveiled on Wednesday the final plans for the circuit that will host the European Grand Prix next season.

The urban track will be built around Spanish city’s new America’s Cup port, and it will have a length of 5.4 kms.

The estimated laptime will be one minute and 37 seconds, with estimated top speeds of over 320 km/h and an average speed of over 200 km/h.

A lap of the Monte Carlo circuit, Formula One’s most historic urban track, has an average speed of 159 km/h.

Valencia’s circuit will have a total of 25 turns, 11 to the right and 14 to the left, and will be able to host a total of 100,000 spectators.

The construction works are expected to begin in October.

The Valencia track looks to be an exciting one, for both F1 fans and F1 drivers. Hopefully it will be an invigorating experience for all the news fans it attracts (although being in Spain, Alonso driving is enough for them) but most of all, for current F1 fans who have been desperate for some tracks that don’t remind them of the wide-open Tilke designed types. Although Tilke has actually designed this new Valencian circuit too, it’s different from the rest he has brought to F1. He aims for the Valencian Grand Prx to be the ‘best Urban track’. I dreamt of a very similar looking track near around the Docklands in London where I live, across the bridges over the river Thames…

Being over 1min 30 secs, the drivers will be put up to some new challenges through this monaco-esqe track. An average speed of 200 km/h too, should have the drivers and the spectators delirious for more!