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Raikkonen keen to move on from Oz

 

Kimi Raikkonen was determined to look on the bright side after his incident-packed Australian Grand Prix, and has pledged to do better in Malaysia next weekend.

The world champion endured a nightmare start to his title defence, with a fuel pressure problem in qualifying leaving him 15th on the grid, and then two trips off the road in the race preceding an apparent engine problem in the closing laps.

But the rate of attrition was such that Raikkonen was still classified ninth, and he hopes to be elevated into the points if Honda's Rubens Barrichello is penalised for passing a red light in the pit exit.

"For sure if you cannot finish the race it's not very good, but I think we should get one point still because Rubens went through a red light," Kimi commented

"So it's better than nothing, but it's not what we wanted from here."

Raikkonen's race started well as he jumped to eighth on the opening lap and then progressed to third as others pitted.

But just as a remarkable podium finish began to look probable, he plunged off the road in an ambitious bid to pass Heikki Kovalainen for second.

He would later spin at the same spot, and was running seventh when his engine fell sick in the final laps.

"I don't know what happened with the engine, we need to look at it," Raikkonen said.

"I went off when I tried to pass Kovalainen, I had a little spin, and all sorts of things happened, but those things don't matter if you don't finish the race.

"Hopefully we'll get that one point like we should and then we'll go the next race and try to do better."

He took comfort from Ferrari's strong performance when in clear air.

"This is only the first race and the car itself was good when we were able to run alone, so I think we have a good car," said Raikkonen.

"There are many races left and every point that we can get is always a bonus."

 


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