Mat Coch writes:

A confident Kimi Raikkonen believes he's still got a chance of winning this year's world championship, despite currently sitting fifth in the drivers' standings, 48-points behind Fernando Alonso.

"He has quite a big gap but there are many points still on the table," the Finn reasoned. "I have almost as good a chance as anybody else."

"I don't ever say I have a better chance. I probably have the worst chance of the front guys; apart from Alonso all the rest is pretty close and there are still many points to win," he added. "Any of us only need to have a bad race and it will drop you out of the better positions.

A constant front runner throughout the season Lotus has lacked the final push to claim victory; Raikkonen's charge to second place in Bahrain, where he challenged Sebastian Vettel for the lead, the closest the team has come.

After fading in the latter half of 2011, Lotus has been a permanent fixture at the front this season, keeping pace with the likes of Red Bull and McLaren as the development race hotted up. "Hopefully the new stuff we're getting is working and we can be up there and at least put ourselves in a position to try to win," said the Finn.

"We haven't really managed to put it together so far this year. We know the reasons; hopefully we'll learn from those and start making it better."

Asked whether the team's performance will see him towards the front this weekend the 2007 world champion was circumspect. "Other teams have been pushing on so who knows where we're going to be… We've gone well in most of the races this year so I don't see why we shouldn't be."