Kimi’s Column: Post – Turkish GP

Bogey from Turkey



We went to Istanbul leading the championship by 9 points. We came back
home leading the championship by 7 points. You can count it any way you
like, but for me it’s more or less like the same it was.



I like to play golf. After Turkey I’ve got the same feeling like having a bogey, when playing golf.


Obviously I had a very difficult weekend. The one that starts with
problems goes on with problems, but – thank Heaven – it did not finish too
badly.


For sure we would just want to fight for wins. But this is racing.
Sometimes it just goes wrong since the very beginning of the weekend while you are not able to get everything right, you try to focus on
saving all you can.



To limit the damage – like we did in Turkey this time.


We finished third. Obviously, after having a look at all that
happened – not the least in the first corner after the start – I cannot
be terribly disappointed after walking away from there with six points.


Actually I made it home to Switzerland in the evening and I managed
to see Finland beating USA in the ice hockey world championship
tournament in Canada. After that also my own result felt even better.


The Turkish weekend began badly on Friday morning. We were on our
first flying lap while something went wrong with the gear shifting.
After that we had to wait until the afternoon to carry on the work.


The weather was good in the morning, but there was some rain in the
afternoon so we were not able to get a proper picture of our car and
the tyres. The Saturday morning was not that much better and we had to
go to the qualifying without the best possible set up.


Obviously, at the end of the day, the car was pretty good with a
heavier fuel, but I made a slight mistake in my lap and that cost too
much. We got the fourth place in the grid and that that really hurt us.


My start was not good, either. I was side by side with Heikki. It
was tight, but I thought I could go pass him. He turned quite early in
and then there was no room at all. I slowed down as much as I could,
but my front wing touched lightly his rear tire. I lost a part of the
front wing. There were people passing us from the right and then we
were sixth after the first corner.


The car was not working as I would wanted it to work, but there was
no time to change the wing. It would have cost more time compared to
the time we lost using it to the finish.



Afterwards it would be always easy to say what we could have done differently. I never do that. This case is closed.


So far Barcelona has been the only weekend we have had no problems
at all. Hopefully Monaco will be the next good race for us and we can
do what we want to. I have a good feeling; we’ll have a strong car
there.


Now we’ll test a couple of days in France. The whole team is very,
very motivated, preparing to go to the circuits, where we were not that
competitive last year.

As Kimi put it best, I don’t need to add anything other than – Monaco, here we come!!!

Ferrari Unhappy With Massa Despite Win
From PaddockTalk.com

Ferrari sporting director Luca Baldisserri has admitted to
disappointment that the Italian team did not secure a one-two finish in
the Turkish grand prix.

Although happy with Felipe Massa’s
Istanbul win, Baldisserri suggested that he would have liked to have
seen the Brazilian driver prevent Lewis Hamilton – on a three-stop
strategy – from overtaking him so easily on lap 23.

If Hamilton’s progress had been slowed, Baldisserri believes Kimi Raikkonen would have managed to finish second.

"This
victory is an excellent outcome, but I am not entirely happy, because
if Felipe had kept Hamilton behind him for two laps moire then perhaps
Kimi would have finished second," the Italian is quoted as saying by
RAI.

26-year-old Massa, however, insists that Hamilton’s light car made the Briton "very strong and I couldn’t hold him".

Video
replays of the pass show Massa defending the inside line as Hamilton
set up his move, but in Ferrari’s official post-race release, he is
quoted as saying he did not take "too many risks" in his defence.

He
said in a news conference: "I saw him on my inside and I thought ‘okay,
go, and we will see at the next stop how it is going to be’."

That’s pretty shocking to hear from Ferrari (or maybe it’s just media orders from Di Montezemolo…) If Massa did anymore
defending than he did, no Ferrari would have won the race, it would have been
irresponsible and he’d get the stick for that too. 



Felipe can’t protect Kimi in these kind of situations. Kimi just didn’t
have a good weekend and it should be up to him whether he can win or not – he wouldn’t have cared coming in second if he
couldn’t take the lead anyway. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost 2 points to Lewis, but
I mean come on! Ferrari better not speak like this again otherwise it really would spoil such a good relationship and the sportsmanship between Kimi and Felipe.