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Monday, October 09, 2006
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F1 Japan: Kimi Raikkonen Fifth
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This weekends F1 race at Suzuka was very exciting until the 36th round, after that, it became one of the most boring and frustrating races this season. Why 36th, well that is when the Schumie had his engine blow up, instantly ending the chance for us to see a last head-to-head fight in Sao Paulo. Other than Schumie's engine blowing up and Alonso winning in Suzuka, Raikkonen came in 5th and de la Rosa 11th.
Both cars carried a heavy fuel load for a long first stint. Pedro was running in 12th position when he made his first refuelling stop at the end of lap 20 (7.5sec) and lost one place when he rejoined the race. Kimi was fourth by lap 22 when he pitted for the first time (9.7sec) before resuming in eighth place.
On lap 40, Pedro was running tenth when he made his second refuelling stop (6.6sec) and lost the position as a result. Kimi was now running third. He came in for his second pit stop on lap 41 (5.7sec) and rejoined in fifth place.
Here are what Kimi and the rest had to say:
Kimi Raikkonen: "That was a good result for where we started the race, but it is not really good enough to be fighting for fifth place, and not what we wanted out of the weekend. The car felt a lot better today especially in the long runs, but our race today was lost in qualifying yesterday where we just couldn't get the speed out of the car that was possible."
Pedro de la Rosa: "That was really a difficult race for me today. Starting from 13th on the grid it was always going to be difficult to move through the field as everyone around me was on very similar strategies. I really struggled to get any pace out of the car as my tyres just had no grip. This weekend could have been a lot better if we had been on different tyres."
Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "A tremendous race by Kimi, fifth place was the best he could do under the circumstances. Our race pace was not so bad and would have been even better with the right tyre choice. With that in mind, we are looking forward to Brazil where we expect to be more competitive. Pedro drove a solid race. However coming from this low grid position it was difficult to improve further through the field."
Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "The race speed was better than qualifying had indicated. This was shown by Kimi's fourth fastest lap of the race. However more than fifth place was not really possible, taking into account that he came from 11th on the grid and we probably didn't take the optimum tyre choice. We now focus all our work on being more competitive in the final race at Brazil."
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posted by Muamer Hodzic @
10/09/2006 09:32:00 AM
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