Raikkonen Optimistic for Future

Kimi Raikkonen said McLaren have learned valuable lessons this year after he secured their first win of the season in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, who finished second in the overall title last year, claimed only his second Grand Prix victory and McLaren's first since the Malaysian Grand Prix in March 2003 when he beat Ferrari's Michael Schumacher on Sunday.

McLaren have disappointed this year with technical problems forcing the Finn to retire from seven of his 14 races but Raikkonen is now confident that improvements by the British team on the upgraded MP4-19B car will allow them to challenge for further race wins this year.

"I am happy for myself and for the team. We have learned from the mistakes we made," said Raikkonen, who halted Schumacher's run of seven consecutive race wins at Spa.

"We've been working hard, especially because the start of the season was so difficult for us, and finally we have got some good results and something back from the hard work.

"I think the rest of the races should be pretty good for us, but it will be difficult to win always. We will give our best as a team and hopefully we can win some more races.

Raikkonen's teammate David Coulthard claimed two points from a seventh-place finish to increase McLaren's slim chances of claiming second place in the Constructors' Championship behind Ferrari.

McLaren are fifth in the Constructors' Championship table on 49 points, five points behind Williams. BAR are third with 83 points, eight points behind second-placed Renault.

Runaway leaders Ferrari secured their sixth successive constructors title at the last race in Hungary two weeks ago and Michael Schumacher secured his seventh world title with second place in Spa on Sunday.