Raikkonen Refuses to be Despondent

Kimi Raikkonen has refused to be despondent despite his nightmare start to the season reaching a new level in Friday's free practice session ahead of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was sidelined eight minutes into Friday's second practice session at the new Sakhir circuit when his engine failed after a fire caused by a fuel leak in the air tray. Under new Formula One rules limiting drivers to one engine per race weekend, any change of engine before the race brings with it a 10 place penalty.

"The damage was severe enough that we needed to change it," said Norbert Haug, motorsport head of McLaren's engine partners Mercedes.

The problem has come on top of two retirements in the opening two races for the Finn, who was a pre-season favourite to challenge World Champion Michael Schumacher, but last year's Championship runner-up is not down in the dumps.

"It is not nice," Raikkonen said when asked about his disastrous start to the season. "It is not nice for me or for any of the team but that's racing. Of course, we would like to be in a better position than we now are but everyone is pushing hard and trying to improve it.

"It is always taking a little while before you get there, it doesn't happen over two weeks and also I haven't had the best luck yet but that is the way it is."

McLaren have picked up just four points this season - through Raikkonen's teammate David Coulthard - and have been left searching for extra performance from their package.