Kimi relishing 'home' race

Despite Raikkonen's retirement from second place at the German Grand Prix last month, the last two races have given McLaren its best results of the season with Raikkonen stepping onto the second step of the podium for the first time this year at the British Grand Prix while team-mate David Coulthard took fourth spot at the German Grand Prix last month.

The new MP4-19B has just got better and better since its introduction at the French Grand Prix leaving Raikkonen buoyed for this weekend's challenge in Budapest.

"I always enjoy the Hungarian Grand Prix due to the great atmosphere that all the Finnish fans create," Raikkonen said. "It is a long-standing tradition for thousands of them to attend the race so it is like a home grand prix for me, and hopefully we will be able to secure a good result in front of them."

Team-mate Coulthard is not looking forward to the hot conditions that tend to accompany the Hungarian race, but the Scot is still looking to make his first step onto the podium.

"Fitness is a key aspect in Hungary as it is traditionally extremely hot and is also a physically demanding circuit, with constant cornering and gear changing similar to Monaco, so endurance is vital. It is the shortest and slowest circuit after Monte Carlo, and sees us use a high-downforce configuration.

"As we showed in Germany, the car is continuing to improve and hopefully I will be able to have an incident-free race and challenge for a podium finish."

CEO Martin Whitmarsh added: "During the three-week gap in racing, preparation for Hungary and the continued development of MP4-19B has been unrelenting at Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart. The Hungaroring provides an interesting technical challenge and its characteristics demand a well-balanced car.

"Following the pace we saw in Germany, we are all looking forward to putting more competitive miles on MP4-19B and continuing to work toward realising the potential it has demonstrated to date."