Kimi Raikkonen believes there is not much significance to his fastest time set at Jerez – Formula 1
Kimi Raikkonen said that the fastest time on the first day of the pre-season testing was of no significance to him.
Raikkonen finished at the top of the chart at Jerez on the first day as he set a 1 min 19.670 second lap with the Lotus E20. After completing his 75 laps from the day, Raikkonen was clear in his views over his first experience in the 2012 car with the Pirelli
compounds that are going to be very similar to the ones to be used during the 2012 season.
Raikkonen casually said that the fastest time does not make any difference to him, maybe if it was a race day it would have been a different story but on a test day he not going to give it much thought.
McLaren driver Jenson Button though was impressed by the time set by the Finn and said that even if he was running the car on low fuel that is quite a quick time set.
Raikkonen gave his views on the car in comparison to the ones he has driven in the past and said, “The feeling was pretty good with the car and it's handling quite nicely. So just going with feeling, I'm quite happy with the thing. There are areas that we
can improve and have to improve but I've had much worse first impressions from other cars than I've had from this one. I'm quite positive.”
“I'm happy how I'm driving and I was already happy with how I was driving three weeks ago, but for sure you can improve always and make it better. Like I said already before I'm not worried and three weeks ago once we did the test I wasn't worried about
it,” he added.
Raikkonen has been written off by quite a few critics for the 2012 season citing reasons of rustiness and lack of practice behind a F1 car to hinder his performances in the season.
However, the first day at the first test suggests the opposite and it is shaping up to be quite the exciting season for all the fans of the sport as the former world champion is gaining both in confidence – which he never lacked – and practice behind the
wheel.
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