From Autosport.com
Q. Did you test something new today?
Kimi Raikkonen:
Yes, we tried some new stuff – and the team had tried them earlier in
the week. But I tried it for the first time today, and it was okay.
Q. How did the car feel here?
KR: I thought it was okay. We tried some things and didn’t
really put too much effort into setting up the car. Overall it was
good. It was quite windy in the afternoon but I think we have a good
car here, and it is hard to say from testing what fuel loads everyone
is running. But the feeling is good here and we will see where we are
next week.
Q. Did you talk to the engineers about the failure in Magny-Cours?
KR: No, we didn’t have time. They are still checking what it
was. My guess is it was just an unfortunate thing and broke the
exhaust. It happens sometimes.
Q. What is your forecast for the race after this test?
KR: I was pretty happy with the car. We need to wait until
next Friday to see where we are against the others, but we should have
a good car. We were strong here last year, and the car is good, so I
expect us to be in with a good chance of being able to win the race.
Q. You are still stuck on your 17th victory, which in Italy is an unlucky number. What do you think about that?
KR: For sure we can change it this year, so it won’t be an
issue. We would rather have won last time around, but we still got good
points and we should have a strong car here. So hopefully we can have a
good result once again.
Q. Last year the win was important because it showed you were
strong for the championship. What will it mean to win at Silverstone?
KR: A win is always a nice thing. We are going to try and do
our best, but like we saw in the last race there are many things that
can go against you, or can help you. I expect to have a good car here,
and for sure it would help with the points if we could win, but we need
to have a good strong weekend and see where we finish. It will be a
close fight. We will try to do another good weekend and hopefully one
without any problems, and then have a good result.
Q. Felipe Massa is leading the championship, but the bookmakers still think you are favourite. What do you think about that?
KR: There have been many leaders this year, and there is
still a long way to go. It doesn’t really matter who is leading right
now, or who was leading before. It only counts at the end of the last
race. Everybody is pretty close and, as we have seen in the last few
races, it can change pretty quickly. Hopefully we can come back and
lead the championship when it really matters.
Q. Many people think Ferrari will show a similar level of speed at Silverstone as they did at Magny-Cours. Do you agree?
KR: I hope it will be. McLaren are always strong here, and
I’m expecting that next weekend. I think it’s going to be quite close
between us and I don’t see the other teams being close enough for the
win, but with them (McLaren) it is going to be a tight fight.
Q. Is this championship coming down to consistency?
KR: It helps for sure if you are consistent. If you are not
fast enough then you still need to try and win the races, and get
there. If you can score points in every race, then you are always going
to be in a strong position.
Q. Does last season’s victory in the British Grand Prix help you in your approach to this year’s race?
KR: Not really. We’ve won at many places, and we know how it
should be done, but every year is different – sometimes it can be
easier, and other times more difficult. We saw in the last race you can
be fast, but it doesn’t always go your way. I hope to be in a position
– we should be at least in a position – to win the race, and we will
see if we can achieve it or not.
Q. You know McLaren very well. Are they suffering from a lack of experience with both drivers?
KR: I don’t think so. There are a lot of people who know what
they are doing. Sometimes you have a difficult car; sometimes you have
a better one. That’s normal for everybody.
Not giving much away as usual, but that’s the best thing to do really. He mentioned the car felt good but "we didn’t put too much effort into setting up the car" – doesn’t that sound a bit cheeky? Perhaps Kimi’s feeling really confident about the car on ths track, hopefully he can win in Silverstone again!
FUCK ISRAEL 
Great interview. As you said, it sounds like they are very confident for Silverstone if they did not need to do too much set up.I’m not reading too much into Hamilton being fastest today as no doubt they ran him on fumes just to get the glory of being at the top of the timesheets. Whereas Ferrari, having a proven fast car, are more likely to try to leave their competitiors guessing!
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Hi Saima!Loooved the wallpaper you made by Ozdge´s request! It´s absolutely beautiful.Nicki: Could not agree more with you about Hamilton; the press hit him hard after Magny Cours, now they´re slowly trying to rise him back up, since it´s his home GP. I bet the guy is feeling pressured as hell, and as we´ve seen, he doesn´t nor will handle that well. We´ll have to see how he cracks up this time.And Ferrari is there on top, it´s obvious, even if Kimi doesn´t want to say so; it´s not that he doesn´t want to say that they´re on great shape and that he sees himself on the podium on Sunday, it´s just that he tries not to get ahead of things, you know, predicting that one thing will happen, when he really doesn´t know; he was positive about winning in France and look what happened. The guy is soooo wise, Hamilton should listen and learn; I wouldn´t be surprised if in the next days he starts ranting about how fast he´s been in the practises and how strong McLaren is, ahhh, only time will tell =).KEEP FLYING KIMI-KEEP FLYING EVENSTAR-FORZA FERRARI!!!
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Hey hey guys! Thought I’ll post some info from an old mate called Charlie who went to the test yesterday:"I went to the testing today.
Snuck into the paddock too, saw Kimi after he drove and i got a picture
with Chris Dyer. Didn’t get anything from Kimi though. He was mobbed
when he came out of the garage. He literally couldn’t get out of the
door (He had to get one of the ferrari guys to basically push everyone
away) whereas i got a good look at him but from a small distance. I
wouldn’t liked to get mobbed like that so i wasn’t prepared to do that
to any driver, especially Kimi. He was signing stuff extremely quickly
as his "muscle" pushed through people to make a small path leading
about 20 yards across the paddock to the safety of their trucks.
Kimi did not look happy at all. He even raised his voice to this
man who was stopping Kimi moving forward, just blocking him from going
anywhere, shoving a pen and paper in his face while his was in the
middle of signing someone else picture.
Anyway. I had a good day.
btw, dont be fooled by Lewis’ time. It was good, and he was quick,
but he was very light (he only did an outlap, a flying lap, and an
inlap). Kimi did longer stints all day really. Kimi was consistently in
the mid 1min 20’s and then later on in the day, when Lewis did longer
runs, he was consistently doing mid to low 1min 21’s. Very late in his
stint when the fuel was low he did manage a high 1min 20. But obviously
couldn’t get a qualifying lap pace because he did a long stint, and as
we know with Lewis, tyres are not his friend."So, not a very nice position for Kimi, was it? Yet we have people like this making a ridiculous assumption that Kimi never signs anything for his fans. Granted, Kimi isn’t the most outgoing and public adoring person, but he isn’t a jerk. I’ve heard from plenty of lucky fans who’ve met him and even taken pictures with him without any problem. Plus, it’s not like Lewis can even think about being a rude driver to his home crowd can he? To be honest, I wouldn’t bother Kimi for an autograph unless no one else is around and he has the time. He might be famous and a millionaire, but he’s doing his job and is a human being too. If Lewis so loved his fans, he should have stayed living in the UK then, innit?But the info about the test was good, (he posted it on the official forum).
I wonder if Lewis will continue to have issues with his tyres at
Silverstone during the race, where I was at at last year, he was
locking them up on every other lap.Like Jean Todt said about Kimi’s drive there last year, "Kimi was simply majestic, from the first to the last lap" 🙂
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One more thing, I’m sorry the highlight video hasn’t been posted yet, I haven’t been well this week so I’ve never got around to making it. It should be done by Sunday hopefully, or possibly even tomorrow if I pull an all-nighter lolHere’s a strange McLaren/Lewis pic meantime lol and look at Coulthard waving to the fans! Bless him 🙂
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Here’s a video from yesterday’s test, in Italian, thanks to TaniaS from the official forum.
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Hope your feeling better, and Thanks so much.
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Hi, Saima and everyone here. Firstly hoping you are much better by now and take care of yourself.
I totally agree that Kimi is a guy who talks with his performance so just let us wait and see what goes ahead. Believe Ferrari will help find the best set up for their cars for both qualifying and more importantly the race. Bless Kimi maintains his good form which can be seen from his 5 consecutive fastest laps in races with different results although.
AND read the guy’s record of yesterday’s testing.It’s a shame for Kimi to have to put up with the mobbed crowds after a tiring day. Fans like the guy writing it would be such a consolation for him! Maybe he would be more at ease with his fans in that case.
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Thanks for that Saima, I hope you’re feeling better. I personally cannot understand those that push themselves into others faces, they are people with feelings too, not caged animals or puppets there to do others bidding, which must be how they are made to feel sometimes.I have to say that Hamilton does seem to have calmed down a bit now. I was at the Brooklands Festival today and they had him drive last years Mclaren round the teeny Mercedes World track a few times. He was also interviewed by Tiff Needell and actually came across as less aggressive and arrogant, so I’m hoping someone out there may have talked some sense into him!Going back to Brooklands for more tomorrow, it’s Heikki’s turn in the car!!!
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Hello!!!! well…I m uruguayan and I cant speak english excellent but I can… I have a question… how you can put in your space a image when I enter…that say " kimi raikkonen space world champion 2008" .I want a program?? please..answer me…..Thanks….Bye
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i have something for You :)http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn165/justnert/
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