• Hungarian Grand Prix - FP2

Not crucial to beat Vettel - Raikkonen

ESPN Staff
July 26, 2013 « Mercedes pace looks 'shocking' - Hamilton | Grosjean encouraged by Lotus progress »
Kimi Raikkonen ended FP2 in eighth position © Sutton Images
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Kimi Raikkonen says there is no additional emphasis on beating Sebastian Vettel this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of the summer break.

Title rival Fernando Alonso said on Thursday that the championship battle hinges on Sunday's race, with it crucial that he closes the gap to Vettel. However, Raikkonen doesn't share the same perspective and says the number of races remaining means the championship is far from being decided.

"[Beating Vettel] is what we aim for in every race; it doesn't matter if it's now or at the beginning of the year or after the break," Raikkonen said. "If we cannot do it we cannot do it, we always try to do the best we can and hopefully we improve and get closer, but there's still half of the season to go so anything can happen."

Reflecting on his FP2 performance, Raikkonen said the new tyres could be causing him to suffer from understeer but that he was unsure after a disjointed session.

"We had some issues at the beginning of the session and we lost a bit of time but it was OK. We didn't get a lap time on the new tyres because of traffic and then we did enough of a long run to know where we are.

"It was a bit difficult today; just too much understeer and I think we have to work on certain things but this is pretty normal on Fridays. I think it's a bit more tricky because of the new tyres so it's not exactly the same as we're used to but it should be OK tomorrow."

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