2007 Belgium Grand Prix

Sunday –

 
Kimi Raikkonen took his third consecutive victory at the Belgian
Grand Prix, comfortably edging away from teammate Felipe Massa in a
Ferrari one-two.

The McLarens were no match for the Ferraris and had to settle for
third and fourth, with Fernando Alonso finishing ahead of Lewis
Hamilton and narrowing the rookie’s championship lead to just two
points with three rounds remaining.

Kimi ended the race in style, smoking his tyres amidst the roar of the crowd. He’s won his 3rd consecutive race at Spa Franchorchamps and he was clearly very happy. Well done Kimi!

But we have to pay our respects to a motorsport legend in Rally – Colin McRae and also his son, who died in a helicopter crash this weekend. You can see a tribute from the BBC here.  Deepest condolences to his fans, family and friends.

Raikkonen says still in title hunt
"We haven’t given up and are still in the hunt," said Raikkonen. "We
reduced the gap again. We lost a bit in the last race but anything can
happen. There are still three races to go, everyone is so close and we
will fight hard and sometimes things can go wrong for all of us.

"We will keep pushing and see what happens. If we do it will be amazing but we will keep pushing and we don’t give up. We knew that we were going to be much stronger here than
in Monza. We know the reasons why we cannot challenge them in circuits
like Monza, Monaco and Montreal.

"We are trying to fix the problems for next year and then we can be
pretty strong. Here is more to do with aero and our car is stronger in
those areas."

Belgium was the last race of the European season, and Formula One
will now travel to new territory at the Fuji circuit for the Japanese
Grand Prix. Raikkonen admitted he is unsure about what to expect from the Japanese track.

"I don’t even know how the circuit looks so it’s difficult to say,"
he said. "What I heard is it might be not the best place for us but wee
will see. The last three races can be either way, it will be close. In
qualifying we have a hard time against McLaren and in the race we can
be stronger. We need to improve in qualifying and we can always be quicker in the race. We keep working and try to improve."

Sunday quotes: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen – 1st: "A great day! I had some
doubts about the car’s handling after yesterday’s qualifying, but
everything went well. The car worked very well for the whole race: I
was quick enough in the first part to control the race after that.

"It is nice to win here on my favourite track for the third time in
a row. Now we must continue to push. We are still a long way off in the
championship but we are not giving up and we will keep going right to
the very end of the championship."

Post-race press conference transcript

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, how big was the temptation to try for the fastest lap again?

KR: I didn’t want to risk anything. The car was very good but
unfortunately you don’t get any points for that. Sometimes you might do
it for fun but I didn’t have any temptations really on this one.

Q. (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Kimi, we saw you do
a bit of a donut spin there coming back into the pits. What happened?

KR: I lost it. (laughter)

KR: No, I have always wanted to do one and here it
is much easier so… And it was the second race engine, so it doesn’t
really matter if you make life harder for it.

Q. (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Germany) Kimi, you already
talked about we are a long way into the title but does it give you any
boost winning here?

KR: I think so, it doesn’t matter if you win here or any
other race. It helps me in the points and it helps me in the
championship, so for sure it is much nicer to win than to finish third
or fourth, or fifth, or second. I would rather win and have a better
chance for the championship. That is what matters really.

Hahaha, it was a great thing for the sport that Kimi ‘lost it’. And why not, after the miserable and generally negative ongoings over the past few weeks. Kimi brought a big smile to our faces with that little celebration of wheel smoking, as there is hardly any of this in F1. He also made a good point about not getting points for taking fastest laps in the races. Of course only he would do it for fun. Keep Flying Kimi.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1h20:39.066
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +     4.695
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    14.343
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    23.615
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    51.879
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:16.876
 7.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +  1:20.639
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:25.106
 9.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:25.661
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +  1:28.558
11.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +  1:43.633
12.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:48.036

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Button        Honda                (B)    37
Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)    35
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    30
Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    9
Fisichella    Renault              (B)    2

Photos – Get high-res pics from the forum! >

Videos

Last lap donuts and wheel smoking with Kimi:



http://www.mediafire.com/?8dlngsewvnu

Kimi’s team radio with Chris Dyer (his race engineer) – http://www.mediafire.com/?3kbnvdnylql

The FULL burnout here – http://www.mediafire.com/?9jqrtdrf7ld

Post-Race Press conference

 
http://www.mediafire.com/?dxuxgvbvvjg

Podium Ceremony:



http://www.mediafire.com/?0zn4qcjtdut

Kimi’s and Dyer’s cute little embrace behind podium – http://www.mediafire.com/?6tnz0ryna29

Saturday – Qualifying, Kimi on Pole!
   
Kimi takes the 2007 pole position, and his 14th career pole, at his favourite track – Spa Franchorchamps. After a year out of F1, the Belgian circuit returns and finds it’s Flying Finn, winner of the 2004 and 2005 races, to lead the grid for the race.

It was very close between the two Scuderia Ferrari teammates, with Massa just 0.017 behind. I wonder if Massa is on the same strategy as Kimi, although I doubt this. The McLarens’ are right behind the Ferraris’, with Hamilton taking a careful strategy in 4th place. Hopefully tomorrow Kimi can convert this Saturday victory into the most important, a race victory. Kimi needs all the points he can get if there’s any hope for grabbing the 2007 F1 world championship.

Saturday quotes: Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen – 1st: "Obviously, I am happy with
this pole position, obtained on one of my favourite tracks and also
happy with the overall result for the team. On my first run in Q3, the
car was very good but I felt something was not quite right with the
rear end on my in lap.

"Apparently everything was okay and so we decided to continue with
the second run. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was still good enough to
improve and take pole. The balance of the car was good right from this
morning. Usually, we are quicker in the race than in qualifying.
Tomorrow we will try and do our best to get a good result."

Raikkonen expecting very close race
"We knew that Monza was going to be a bit tricky for us and this a
bit more like Turkey. We expected to be strong here. It will be close
tomorrow, we need to do the best we can," said Raikkonen.

"We should have a good start, and we’ll try to go from there. We are
usually strong in the race, we are hopeful we can have a strong race.
Anything can happen. We will try out best tomorrow."

Raikkonen, who struggled with neck problems in Monza following a
crash on Saturday, said he was feeling fine ahead of tomorrow’s race.
"The neck is okay, I am sure it is no 100 percent right but it should be fine," he added.

Photos – Get high-res pics from the forum! >

Videos

Kimi’s pole lap onboard

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5ksomf

Qualifying Press Conference

http://www.sendspace.com/file/r02pwm