Raikkonen says title still possible

Raikkonen scored two consecutive victories in France and Silverstone but retired from the European Grand Prix after being hit by mechanical problems.

Although the gap to championship leader Lewis Hamilton remained unchanged after the Briton failed to score too, Raikkonen is still 18 points behind with seven races remaining.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are also ahead of the Finn.

But Raikkonen reckons it is still possible for him to win the title, but has warned that he can't afford to fail to score in any of the remaining races.

"Finishing ahead of all the other three drivers who compete for the title: that's the only way for me to make up ground," said Raikkonen. "I'm more or less in the same situation as I was at the Nurburgring, but it's clear that I can't allow myself another race without points.

"I still believe that it's possible for me to win the title: just look at the last race and you can see that everything can happen. A bad race for my competitors is enough to immediately reduce the gap. Very often the race here in Hungary has been nicknamed the Finnish GP.

"Many of my fellow Finns fill the grandstands here at the Hungaroring and it is really nice to see so many white flags with the blue cross in the wind: and this time we will see them together with the red flags of Ferrari. I think this is the closest I can get as a home GP, if Bernie does not have any more surprises."

The Ferrari driver believes McLaren will not be stronger than Ferrari at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, despite the Hungaroring circuit believed to be better suited to the British cars.

"Everybody says that McLaren has to be stronger than us here; but I don't think that this will be the case," he said. "We have taken a big step forward since the race in Monaco and it will be really interesting to see how competitive we are over the weekend.

"The Hungaroring is very slow and winding; so the two most important things here are the right angle entry into the corners and the traction: if these two things work out, then you have good cards in your hand. Obviously it is very important to stay ahead in qualifying and if possible also stay clear of the dirty side of the track.

"Looking at the races of this season one can see easily that starting on the clean side of the track is very important at the start. Beyond that, on this track here it's really difficult to overtake, which makes the qualifying even more important."