Raikkonen Learning from Mistakes, Says Dennis

Finn Kimi Raikkonen's brilliant pole position for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring proves he is learning from his mistakes, according to team boss Ron Dennis.

Raikkonen has started from the back of the grid twice after making errors during the Saturday's grid-deciding qualifying shoot-out, including in the last race, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. But the 23-year-old responded with a drive of immense maturity on Saturday as he denied home favourite Michael Schumacher pole position by just 0.032 seconds.

"We all learn throughout our lives, and the last thing we learn is how to die," Dennis said when asked if Raikkonen is learning from his mistakes. "So I think that's the way life is. If you are in a sport or a business or anything, you should accept the fact that you don't know everything, that you can learn from everybody and every thing.

"Therefore I would be surprised if any driver would not feel that he's going to the next race with a little bit more knowledge and the benefit of reflecting on the mistakes he made or the positives he made."

Dennis claimed that Raikkonen's error in Canada, when he slid off track and consequently abandoned his run, was down to over-exuberance as he went into the first corner too quickly. But the McLaren boss added that the fact the young Finn was not quickest in any of the three sectors at the Nurburgring on his way to pole position underlines how mature his pole lap was.

"I think this circuit emphasises the importance of not being ambitious on the first corner," Dennis said. "If you are ambitious you pay the price around the lap, and as someone quite recently pointed out, Kimi set his pole position without setting a single fastest sector time.

"I think that's a sort of very clear indication of a mature lap, where you are on the limit without going over the limit. So did he have a more mature approach? Well he certainly had a more mature approach than in Canada, and if you look at Canada again, it's that first corner - it's tempering the commitment with reality.

"Kimi tried to go through the first corner (in Canada) 15kms faster than he'd ever been through it before. That is just not going to happen. So that is a mistake, that is immaturity. If he's learned from anything, I am sure he's learned from that. And I think he took a very sensible approach to the first corner (here)."