Raikkonen needs Indianapolis victory

McLaren is gearing up for a full frontal attack at the US Grand Prix as Kimi Raikkonen needs victory at Indianapolis to keep himself in the championship fight. The Finn is still third but after Monza but the gap between him and second placed Juan ...

McLaren is gearing up for a full frontal attack at the US Grand Prix as Kimi Raikkonen needs victory at Indianapolis to keep himself in the championship fight. The Finn is still third but after Monza but the gap between him and second placed Juan Pablo Montoya is four points, while Michael Schumacher is currently leading the Driver's standings, seven ahead of Raikkonen.

Kimi Raikkonen.

Photo by Brousseau Photo.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis knows there's no point counting on either of the top two having bad luck: "The way we attack the next race is to focus on Kimi winning it," he stated. "The worst-case scenario, he comes away with a five-point deficit. It's not worth talking about Michael and Juan having an incident or this or that happening."

"We should just focus on our own destiny and our target should be Kimi winning the race and looking at the mathematics afterwards."

Dennis concedes that Monza, where Raikkonen finished fourth, was not going to be one of McLaren's strongest races and hopes for more at Indy and Suzuka. While there's still a chance, obviously the team will be fighting every inch of the way.

"Monza was going to be our weakest circuit of the last three," said Dennis. "It was a very closely fought battle and the race pace of the top three was all very close in the opening laps. The championship is still do-able."

As for David Coulthard helping Raikkonen's chances, Dennis is adamant teamwork is only natural: "If those circumstances exist where it is appropriate for them to help each other, I'm sure they will. We are a racing team and you would expect team-mates to help each other in these circumstances."