PREVIEW: Raikkonen aims to end Bahrain jinx for confident Ferrari

Apr 3, 2008, 14:17 GMT

Sakhir, Bahrain - World champion Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton are convinced that they will win the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday for Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, respectively.

'We can expect to win on every track with our car,' said Raikkonen ahead of the desert race weekend.

Hamilton was not intimidated, saying: 'There is no team that can apply as much pressure as we can.'

But Raikkonen's claims seem to have more weight, for several reasons.

The Finn overcame a poor season start in Australia by winning the second race on March 23 in Malaysia and now wants to end his Bahrain jix as well after placing third there the past three years.

The Bahrain track is said to favour Ferrari, the Italians did pre- season testing in Sakhir while McLaren didn't, and McLaren have been shifted to last place in the pit lane this weekend.

'I have finished third in three successive Grands Prix in Bahrain. Time and again something has gone wrong. Sakhir is one of those circuits where I really want to win, finally,' said Raikkonen.

'Obviously, our test in February does not harm us,' he added. Even Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug admitted that 'Bahrain offers an advantage in general for Ferrari.'

Hamilton leads the way after two races with 14 points, winning in Australia and coming fifth in Malaysia. Raikkonen has 11 points and so has German BMW driver Nick Heidfeld.

Last year's race in Bahrain was won by the second Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa, ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen. Massa badly needs a result, after not finishing in the first two races due to mistakes, in order to stop a debate on his future at the team.

McLaren said they are undeterred by being moved to the back of the pits in Sakhir, as part of the punishment which saw them stripped of all constructors points over a spying affair with Ferrari last season.

The Anglo-German team got the fifth pit in the first two races because the lower garages offered inferior infrastructure. But on the modern course of Bahrain every garage has the same infrastructure, even though Mclaren will have a little less space this time around.

'We will concentrate on sport as well from there,' said a McLaren spokesman.

The Bahrain race could also give a further indication whether BMW have closed the gap on the two top teams for what would be a three- team race for the title.

Nick Heidfeld placed second in Australia and Robert Kubica got the same result in Malaysia. But Heidfeld also also remained cautious about a possible first GP win for BMW in Bahrain, naming the extreme conditions and Ferrari's advantage there as the main obstacles.

'We must first of all make up this (Ferrari) advantage when we set up the car on Friday,' he said.

Friday sees two free practice sessions on the 5.412-kilometres course, qualifying is on Saturday and the race over 57 laps on Sunday.

There will be no distraction from racing in Bahrain as Max Mosley, head of the ruling body FIA, has decided not to attend the race after being mentioned in connection with sex acts with five prostitutes and Nazi role-playing.

Mosley has not disputed being the man in question in the affair published by British paper News of the World on Sunday. But he said he will sue the paper and insisted there was no Nazi connotation.