Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen hit back at critics who have questioned his motivation following his latest world championship setback at the European Grand Prix last weekend.
While teammate Felipe Massa cantered to victory ahead of McLaren’s world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, the Finn dropped to third overall and 13 points off the Briton in the standings after retiring with engine failure.
It has been a difficult season for the reigning champion with retirements in the Canadian and European GPs, a finish out of the points in Monaco, a lowly eighth in Australia and with podium finishes in only half the races.
PHOTO: EPA
He has only managed to start on the front row of the grid in four out of 12 races while he’s been on the third row in two of the last three.
“What’s happened has happened, there’s no use crying about it,” he said ahead of next weekend’s Belgian GP. “We’ll go there next weekend. I love that circuit, I’d love to race there all year long.”
“It’s the best of them all and I hope to have a good car there. I’ll do my best to win there once again,” he said. “If anyone doubts my motivation they can be sure of this: I want to win, now more than ever.”
Raikkonen has already won three times at Spa, twice for McLaren and then again last year with Ferrari.
However, he has had problems on the four street circuits on this season’s calender.
“It does seem that the street circuits haven’t been favorable to me. In four races I’ve only claimed one point, in Melbourne, in a race I didn’t manage to finish because of an engine failure,” Raikkonen said.
“Then there was the incident with [Adrian] Sutil in Monaco and Hamilton crashing into me at the exit to the pit lane in Montreal,” he said. “And now the latest retirement in Valencia.”
But Raikkonen has also struggled badly in qualifying, claiming a front row position in only a third of the races.
“The truth is in a couple of races [Hungary and Germany] I made some mistakes that relegated me to sixth place while in Valencia I missed out on third place by a hair’s breadth,” he said.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Steve Smith yesterday announced his retirement from one-day international (ODI) cricket after captaining Australia to a semi-final exit at the ICC Champions Trophy, bringing down the curtain on a career in the format that included two ICC World Cup wins. The 35-year-old batsman, who was his team’s top scorer with 73 as Australia lost to India by four wickets in Dubai on Tuesday, said he would still be available for selection for T20 internationals and Test matches. “It has been a great ride and I have loved every minute of it,” Smith said in a Cricket Australia statement. “There have been so
RSS