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Raikkonen hits back at criticism of motivation

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari walks toward the pitlane after failing to finish the Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday. PHOTO: EPA

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen hit back at critics who have questioned his motivation following his latest world championship setback at the European Grand Prix last weekend.

While teammate Felipe Massa cantered to victory ahead of McLaren’s world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, the Finn dropped to third overall and 13 points off the Briton in the standings after retiring with engine failure.

It has been a difficult season for the reigning champion with retirements in the Canadian and European GPs, a finish out of the points in Monaco, a lowly eighth in Australia and with podium finishes in only half the races.

He has only managed to start on the front row of the grid in four out of 12 races while he’s been on the third row in two of the last three.

“What’s happened has happened, there’s no use crying about it,” he said ahead of next weekend’s Belgian GP. “We’ll go there next weekend. I love that circuit, I’d love to race there all year long.”

“It’s the best of them all and I hope to have a good car there. I’ll do my best to win there once again,” he said. “If anyone doubts my motivation they can be sure of this: I want to win, now more than ever.”

Raikkonen has already won three times at Spa, twice for McLaren and then again last year with Ferrari.

However, he has had problems on the four street circuits on this season’s calender.

“It does seem that the street circuits haven’t been favorable to me. In four races I’ve only claimed one point, in Melbourne, in a race I didn’t manage to finish because of an engine failure,” Raikkonen said.

“Then there was the incident with [Adrian] Sutil in Monaco and Hamilton crashing into me at the exit to the pit lane in Montreal,” he said. “And now the latest retirement in Valencia.”

But Raikkonen has also struggled badly in qualifying, claiming a front row position in only a third of the races.

“The truth is in a couple of races [Hungary and Germany] I made some mistakes that relegated me to sixth place while in Valencia I missed out on third place by a hair’s breadth,” he said.
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