It is indeed likely to be a fierce scrap between the two arch-rivals, with
Ferrari carrying the momentum from Magny-Cours – the personal disappointment of which Raikkonen insists he has ‘already archived' – but the Silver Arrows setting the pace in pre-race testing. The 28-year-old maintains that getting it right in qualifying is half the battle won.
“I'll give it my all to stay ahead in qualifying,” he underlined. “Starting from pole does make the race much easier, as we could see at Magny-Cours, so we'll fight for pole position and this time we need to use the track to our advantage.
“Last year at Silverstone I made a small mistake in qualifying, when I took the last corner too wide and lost pole position, but once we had considered the fuel on-board I was still faster than Hamilton. Then with the empty track ahead I could give it my all and win the race.
“I'll arrive with a positive approach at
Silverstone, because I know that I should have won in France. I'll use a new engine because the team doesn't want to risk anything, although the rules say that you will not be punished if you have to change the engine.
“It's almost halfway through the season now, and there have been ups and downs. That's quite normal, though, and we are in a good position to fight for the title. I hope to win more races in the second half of the season, because we have a great car [that is] able to fight for victory everywhere.”
Those thoughts were echoed by Maranello's team principal Stefano Domenicali, who had previously admitted that it would be ‘ambitious' for Raikkonen to run with the same engine as in France, as had originally been planned. A change for Silverstone would go unpunished, however, by dint of playing the team's ‘joker' thanks to the new 2008 regulations that allow one out-of-sequence change per driver per season.
Should the overworked Magny-Cours unit have been used again and failed, Raikkonen would either have received a ten-place grid penalty had it happened in or prior to qualifying, or else it might have put him out of the race altogether.
