It wasn’t all rosy for the Finn though as he had to ease off in the closing stages after his engine developed a minor problem. Kimi has since conceded that they may have to change it before qualifying this weekend, something that would result in him picking up a penalty and losing ten places on the grid.
"There is some concern. We had a slight leakage of water during the last part of the race and the team told me to slow down, writing 'Cool' on the sign next to the Pitlane, as the radio didn't work because of a problem with a plug," he explained. "The engine has since been checked in the works and they also did some simulations. Now the technicians have the data.
"Obviously we hope that the engine will make it through the whole weekend and that we don't have to change it before the qualifying, because we want to completely use our chance. In case we have to change it, obviously it would be a bit different for us: everything would be much more difficult as we had to start ten positions back regarding the result of the qualifying; than the aim would be to reach a good result, the best one possible. But in any case we will give it all!"
Despite that issue though, Raikkonen is still very much looking forward to the race at Sepang and while he took his first
Formula 1 win there in 2003, he hasn't had much luck on his other outings, having to retire in 2006, 2004, 2002 and 2001. This weekend, whatever happens with the engine, he will be after a good solid points haul, at the very least.
"A couple of years ago I had my first victory in
Formula One in Malaysia. Later on I won more races, but you never forget the first victory; that's for sure," he recounted. "I hope that the weekend will be a positive one for us, just like the one in Melbourne. Last week we had some very good testing. I drove the car over two days and we were able to collect all the necessary data. The F2007 seems to be a really competitive car on every kind of race track and the team continues in every direction to make it even better."
