Planet-F1

Raikkonon: Only winning matters

Wednesday 7th May 2008

Although he is extremely happy with his start to the season, World Champion Kimi Raikkonen knows he can't let his guard down at any stage.

Raikkonen has scored two first-place finishes and one second place since his opening race disaster in Melbourne.

The Finn, though, believes Ferrari can't afford to slack off, as their competitors will be ready to pounce on any mistake in Istanbul.

"I bet that our competitors have done their homework very carefully to beat us in Turkey. But there is no reason to worry about that as I believe Ferrari will go fast there as well," he wrote on his website.

"Istanbul is demanding in a similar to Malaysia and Bahrain. Well, Ferrari have won both of those races and that gives us every reason to believe we should again be competitive this weekend."

Raikkonon, currently leading the Championship race by nine points, says finishing first is all that matters.

"I really like this part of the season. We just go for it every time. Only winning matters," he said.

"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 during the race."