Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed a strong start of the season. Apart from a DNF in Australia the Finn finished second or first in the other races. His strong performanced earned him the lead in the championship standings. Although Raikkonen is convinced Ferrari will be strong in Turkey he won't sit back and relax.
Looking ahead of the upcoming Turkish Grand Prix Kimi Raikkonen said: "We didn't have any tests after the race at Barcelona, but I bet that our competitors have worked hard to be prepared as good as possible to beat us at Istanbul. But I'm not worried at all: we worked and I'm convinced that Ferrari can be really strong there. And when you have a look at this year's tracks so far, the one at Istanbul is very similar to the one at Sepang and Sakhir, where we could win. That makes us think that we'll be competitive over the weekend.
"I like the Turkish GP's circuit, it's the best of the new circuits. You go uphill and downhill and it has some very challenging corners. You get a great feeling, especially when you get turn eight right. We are racing anticlockwise for the first time this season and it will out our neck muscles under pressure."
Looking back at the first four rounds in the 2008 F1 championship Raikkonen said: "I won two out of four races and got one second position. With my 29 points I'm leading the Championship by 9. I'm very happy how things have gone so far, but the situation can change in a second: we need to push 100% to stay ahead of our competitors. I won't change my approach. It's too early to think about anything else than a victory. I want to bring home as many points as possible; I like to race with this aim in mind.
"We're leading the Championship, but that is not important at the moment; what counts is that we're leading at the end of the season. If we want to stay ahead the easiest thing is that we keep the others behind in the races. Our goal is to get another one-two win as hard as the Finnish ice-hockey team at the World Championships in Canada at the moment."
Paul Ricard