Raikkonen Stays Positive Despite Second Retirement

A disappointed Kimi Raikkonen said his McLaren team have taken a step in the right direction despite his failure to finish today's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Last year's championship challenger Raikkonen retired 15 laps from the finish after suffering what the team said was a transmission failure. Raikkonen had also failed to finish the season opening Australian Grand Prix and is now 20 points behind race winner Michael Schumacher in the standings.

This time last year, the McLaren driver was leading the Championship with 16 points. The Finn took his second successive retirement badly and angrily shoved a marshal out of the way as he walked back to the paddock.

"It's never nice not to finish a race, not only for me but also for the team," said Raikkonen. "However, whilst we need to become even more competitive at least we have taken a step in the right direction, and I know everybody will continue their efforts to improve even further.

"We were close to getting on the podium today, but in my second pitstop we struggled to get the fuel nozzle to come off, so we lost important time to BAR and Jenson could take third. A few laps later something broke in my transmission, and that was the end of that."

Scot David Coulthard was again the sole McLaren driver who made it to the end of the race, albeit in a distant sixth position.

"We can take some satisfaction from the fact that we have improved our package since Melbourne, but we still have some way to go," said Coulthard. "I found it difficult to hold the car in the fast corners and at one point had a bit of a moment where I very nearly lost it but managed to stay on track, however I lost a few seconds in the process.

"Sixth place is not brilliant, but at least we have improved and I know that everybody in the entire team will continue to work hard until we are where we want to be which is at the front."