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Raikkonen fears McLaren still quicker

World champion Kimi Raikkonen feels rivals McLaren are still ahead of Ferrari in terms of pace following practice in Hungary

Although Ferrari dominated the opening session this morning, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon, when Raikkonen was down in fifth place, ahead of teammate Felipe Massa.

And although Raikkonen believes there is room to improve, he thinks McLaren, winners of the last two races, are still ahead.

"We worked on various set-up options for the car," said the Finn. "I also tried the new engine cover, but it is hard to assess it in any detail.

"The situation is not too bad, the car handles better, but our main rivals seem to be still a little bit quicker than us, even if there is the usual question mark over any difference in the fuel loads.

"There is still room for improvement and we will concentrate all our efforts on this in preparing for qualifying and the race."

Massa echoed his teammate's thoughts, saying he is expecting a tough time to try to beat their rivals.

"It's hard to say exactly where we are compared to the opposition, but clearly they are very quick," said Massa. "I did not feel too comfortable on the softest tyre while on the harder one, which I used first, the situation was much better.

"As usual on the first day at the Hungaroring, it is difficult to understand how the tyres are behaving because you always get a lot of graining, while the situation changes bit by bit as more rubber goes down on the track surface.

"We know in which direction we have to work and we will do all we can to bring home a good result. It will be tough, but I am confident all the same."

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