Reigning
F1 world champion
Kimi Raikkonen has issued another warning to the two drivers ahead of his in this year's standings: I'm up for the fight!
The Finn trails championship leader
Lewis Hamilton by 13 points with six races to run - and has Ferrari team-mate
Felipe Massa separating him from the Briton - but is keen to point out that he overcame a bigger margin in the final couple of races to take the title last season. Indeed, heading to Spa last season, the eventual world champion was
18 points off Hamilton's total.
A series of seemingly lacklustre performances have many writing off Raikkonen's chances of retaining his crown, claiming that the Finn and Ferrari should be throwing their weight behind Massa's challenge before Hamilton and
McLaren open to much of a gap in the standings. Despite not winning either of the last two grands prix, Hamilton managed to gain a point over his pursuers each time, as the respective Ferrari drivers each suffered an engine failure, and now heads Massa by six with a similar number of races to run.
Raikkonen, however, continues to refuse himself out of the title race, despite acknowledging that recent outings have not been his best. The Finn points to qualifying as the weak point in his armoury, unable to set the F2008 to his liking and the paying the penalty for a poor grid slot in the subsequent races.
Heading to this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, however, the world champion is quick to remind his rivals that he has been unbeaten at Spa-Francorchamps for the past three races there, spanning his time at both McLaren and
Ferrari.
"We're on the eve of one of the race weekends I really like - the Belgian GP is one of the highlights of the season and I usually obtain a good result at Spa," he emphasised, "Now I need it more than ever, after the results of the last races.
