Kimi Raikkonen: On the way back?

Not so long ago 1-2 finishes were pretty common for McLaren, and the fact that the mediocre results of the last three races have actually been seen as positive is a sign of where the team is right now. The finishing positions of 5-6, 6-7 and 6-7 since the disastrous Nurburgring double retirement may sound a little like a tennis score, but at least the cars finished, even if it took the exclusions in Montreal to add a little respectability.

Kimi may have finished only seventh in Magny-Cours, but he set the third fastest race lap, only 0.3s off the best of Michael Schumacher. That was the most encouraging piece of data that the team was able to take home from the race.

His fastest time at Silverstone on Friday was another positive sign. He was only 0.005 ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber, but third man Schumacher was half a second off, and BAR and Williams were a few more tenths behind him. Of course as usual we've got no idea what anyone else was doing, but nevertheless, Kimi seemed pretty pleased with the way the day went.

"It was good, and we were quite a bit quicker than the rest," he said after the session. "The Sauber was a bit closer, but they're running quite light, I think. It's nothing to celebrate yet. It doesn't matter if you're last or first today, it's obviously tomorrow that counts.

"It's better than being in last place, and the car was pretty good today. At least we got all the work done, so I'm quite happy. It's difficult to say how it is tomorrow and what the other teams are doing tomorrow. For sure we're not going to go slower. We'll try to improve the car.'

So was he surprised to be competitive?

"Not really. When we tested this car for the first time it was good, and we didn't have the same parts that we have now. I was quite confident that the car would be good. I was maybe surprised that the rest were not so good."

Everything was still a bit too new in France, but clearly a lot was learned by taking the car to a race weekend. It would be logical to assume that returning to a track where the MP4-19B had already tested would help to accelerate the process, although Kimi isn't so sure.

"I don't know. Of course it helps, but it's a different day and different time of the year. It was the only place that we were able to test this car. Like I said, we've had some new parts since then, and we knew the car was good already before. For the next race we're expecting to get more points and we'll have a bigger step forward."

Kimi says he was pleased with the way the car went in France, although he wasn't really able to show its true performance level in the race.

"The race pace was good, but when you're stuck behind a slower car, you cannot use your speed. Hopefully we'll get a good qualifying result, and be able to fight for the podium.

"If I don't make any mistakes in qualifying, for sure it will be good. But you need to see. For sure the other teams might find something. We think we can improve the car still."

However, Kimi is not really looking forward to wet conditions, which could well strike at some stage this weekend.

"I think with Michelin we are not as strong as the Bridgestones yet in wet conditions. So it depends really what it's like. If it's really heavy rain there's not a big different between the tyres, but if starts drying up then it's not so good for us. But we'll see how it is. It's the same for everyone."