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Allison confident of Raikkonen title challenge

ESPN Staff
August 4, 2012 « Sauber not worrying about possibility of losing Perez | Webber defends Red Bull innovations »
Kimi Raikkonen is just one point behind Lewis Hamilton in the standings after finishing second to the McLaren in Hungary © Sutton Images
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Lotus technical director James Allison believes Kimi Raikkonen has a very realistic chance of winning the drivers' championship this season.

As the teams enter the mid-season break, Fernando Alonso leads the standings on 164 points, with Raikkonen 48 points back in fifth place. With Lotus showing strong performance, however, and 25 points available for victory, Allison says Raikkonen is right in the hunt to challenge throughout the second half of the season.

"Why not?" Allison told Sky Sports News when asked if Raikkonen could win the championship. "There are an awful lot of points for coming first and an awful lot of races left. The lead is miniscule compared to the points available."

Allison said that one factor that would help Raikkonen's cause was Lotus' desire to develop the E20 right through the latter stages of the season.

"One of the things that our team has got wrong in the last couple of seasons is that we have been too keen to switch over to the new car a little bit too soon. So we started this year consciously with the aim of developing this one a bit longer."

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