Raikkonen not ruling out Spain victory

May 11 (GMM) Kimi Raikkonen is not ruling out victory in Barcelona this weekend.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

If he does succeed on Sunday, the Finn will become the fifth different driver, driving for a fifth different team, to win the fifth Grand Prix of 2012 -- an almost unthinkable scenario for Formula One.

Not only that, some believe that - despite McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull having fielded the winning cars so far in 2012 - Lotus is actually the favourite in Barcelona.

Raikkonen and his teammate Romain Grosjean were both on the podium in Bahrain, and the black and gold E20 set the pace last week at the Mugello test.

"You would say now that the Lotus and the Red Bull are the cars to beat," said Melbourne winner Jenson Button on Thursday.

Raikkonen, openly disappointed about his second place recently, hopes so.

"If everything goes smoothly then we can be up there," he told reporters on Thursday.

He agrees that the car was a true pacesetter in Bahrain and Mugello.

"Let's hope it works just as well if not better here," Raikkonen, 32, told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3 at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"Then we will at least have the possibility of victory," he added.

He does not, however, want to talk about the championship.

"It has happened before that I had the best car overall but was still not the champion," said Raikkonen. "There are so many little things that have to go in the right direction for you (to win the title).

"It's pointless to think about the championship. Let's try to do our job well, and see if that's enough," the self-described 'iceman' added.

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