Raikkonen downplays his Spa history

Kimi Raikkonen insists that Spa is not a special place for him, despite his impressive record at the Belgian track.

The Finn won the race in 2004, 2005, 2007 and again on his last visit in 2009. Many people are tipping him as a favourite for this weekend.

“It’s not any more special than other places,” he said when asked about it by this writer. “It’s a nice race circuit and usually it gives nice racing. But I know this circuit as good as any other circuit, I haven’t really raced here more than any other places.

“It just happens to have been pretty good for us. But I have had some bad races also, it’s not like we come here and it suddenly should be good. It can be a disaster. Hopefully we can have a good, normal weekend. I think we should be up there, but we don’t know that yet.”

Meanwhile Kimi played down any thoughts about the World Championship, in which he currently lies fifth.

“We still have a good chance so why not? But I don’t know. Nobody knows what will happen in the next races or the end of the year. We’ll try. I have almost as good a chance as anybody else. I don’t say that I have any better chance. I probably have the worst chance from the five guys. Apart from Alonso, the rest are pretty close to each other, and there are also many points to be won. We’ll try, we’ll see what happens.”

He said the prospect of a title challenge was not an extra motivation: “It doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change if I’m in the last position in the points or the first. We race always as well as we can, and see what happens.”

He added that a second title, to add to the one he earned in 2007, was not a particular target.

“I always said if I win one I’m happy, and if something comes after that, I’m not desperate on it. We’ll do everything that we can to try to win it, but if it doesn’t come, it doesn’t come, and it doesn’t change my life in the long run. Yes you are here to try to win races and championships, but like I said, it’s not like it’s going to suddenly change my life completely.

“When I feel I want to stop I’ll stop. It’s not that I’ll try to carry on and try to win it and win it. It’s not going to be the reason why I’ll be here.”