11/06/2008
NEWS STORY
In his latest blog, for Ferrari, World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is clearly still smarting following the controversial incident which saw him eliminated from Sunday's Canadian GP, admitting, in true Victor Meldrew style, that he still doesn't believe it.
"It was a bitter disappointment," writes the Finn. "I still can't believe it, that someone can hit you while you are standing at the red light next to another car. I can't imagine how Hamilton could not see the red lights and the two cars standing in front of him. I think that Hamilton deserved the penalty. He looses ten positions on the grid for the next race in France, which will make it more difficult for him at Magny-Cours.
"Anyway we lost the possibility to have a good result in Canada," he continues. "At the moment when the safety car came on the track, my car was running very fast: we could have won, or, in the worst case, been second. On Saturday we had some problems during qualifying because of the breaking surface of the track. The same thing happened at the beginning of the race. When the rear tyres were clean and the graining was gone and they started to work well, we were really fast: we drove the fastest race lap and we managed to do a great pitstop and we put the car in the front. I was ready to fight and overtake Kubica, once the lights were green. But I didn't have the time, as Hamilton crashed into my back and the race was over. I'm not angry. Just disappointed, surprised and frustrated at the same time. He knew that the lights were red. Accidents happen, but it's difficult not to see two cars stopped.
"Seven races are done and in the last two I didn't bring home any points. Nobody could foresee that. I'm not in a strong position anymore. But it's not the end of the world. We have not lost that much ground. I'm fourth in the Championships. Exactly where I was last year and just like last year there's still a long way to go. It was good for us that Kubica won. Congratulations to him and to the team! Honestly, it's better he got the 10 points than Hamilton. BMW has all the time been there this season and when something went wrong for us they benefited from that.
"I came back from Montreal with a really good impression of the F2008 and I'm sure that we can win again very soon. Because now we go to circuits where we are usually very strong. You know that I don't like to look behind: I'm concentrated on the French GP, where I want to repeat last year's result, when we brought home a wonderful one-two win."