Highlights
Raikkonen pace threat for season ahead, warn rivals
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-14 06:12
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MANAMA: Kimi Raikkonen may not have won Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix but he certainly proved he will be a major threat to the title contenders in this year's drivers' world championship.
His blistering pace from the back of the grid in his McLaren carried him from virtually nowhere to a place on the podium - a starting achievement that made sure both the victorious Fernando Alonso of Spain and Michael Schumacher of Germany took notice.
Raikkonen had suffered a mechanical failure in qualifying and adopted a one-stop strategy for the race. He proved it worked with a phenomenal drive to third place.
"It was no more risky than doing two stops," he said afterwards in his typical deadpan fashion. "The (Michelin) tyres have been working very well - we were on a hard compound and it seemed to come back well and there was no big drop-off.
"We thought anyway that we could do the whole race with no problems." Alonso was impressed.
He said: "During the race I did not know what Kimi was doing," he said. "I was surprised he was on the podium - because he started from the back and also because I thought Jenson was third!
"I think he did a good race and if he started from the front it would have been a close fight again, between two or three cars, so we'll wait for the next one (race) now and the opportunity to see him in a more competitive start."
Schumacher, who finished second for Ferrari, said: "You have to analyse all the laps and times, so it's difficult to say from here just how fast he was... He was very quick and it's no surprise how quick we found them."
Raikkonen himself felt that if he had qualified at the front of the grid, he might have won the race. But he was careful not to be too confident about the future.
"For sure, I would have had a chance to win the race, but I don't know at what point they (Alonso and Schumacher) were quick, so its not easy to say right now.
