SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Kimi Raikkonen badly needs a good showing to tighten the title chase going into the final third of the Formula One championship, and the winding, dipping and daunting track used at the Belgian Grand Prix has often divided champions from challengers.
And for good measure, throw in the threat of a good downpour to mix things up this weekend.
Raikkonen, the defending world champion, has won the last three races here and needs all the points he can get to challenge leader Lewis Hamilton.
“I need it more than ever after the results of the last races,” he said. “Considering I have not won a race in several months, a success would help me to get back in the race,” he said.
After 12 of 18 Grand Prix, Britain’s Hamilton leads the standing with 70 points, ahead of Brazil’s Felipe Massa with 64 and Raikkonen with 57. Robert Kubica is also still in the title chase with 55.
Raikkonen retired with smoke coming from his Ferrari engine at the European Grand Prix in Valencia two weeks ago, further wrecking a disastrous middle part of the championship which has earned him only 22 points out of a possible 60.
“Things go wrong sometimes,” Raikkonen said, adding recent testing in Monza should have fixed his problems.
So he should consider himself lucky he is still in with a chance. At the same time, McLaren’s Hamilton made a huge push up the rankings with 32 points from the last four races, putting him in prime position to challenge for the title.
And he is looking with confidence at the remaining races. “I honestly feel that we have the better package for the remaining races,” Hamilton said.
While McLaren can center all efforts on Hamilton, Ferrari still has Raikkonen and Massa. Massa won in Valencia two weeks ago but now needs to pile on good results at a regular pace, having mixed wins with poor results this season.
Despite the differences, Ferrari is convinced the championship is still there to be won.
“The teams know exactly what they are in front of — a very short championship of six races,” said Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.
With its 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile) track, the Belgian Grand Prix features the longest and most challenging circuit in the championship with a huge variety of corners, both uphill and down. And no part is more daunting that the Eau Rouge-Raidillon combination.
After a hairpin, drivers zip down a hill, gathering ever more speed for the slow left-right uphill curb. Then, barely seeing anything but the pines and clouds, the drivers reach the top of the hill at over 300 kph (185 mph).
“You blast off into the forest and get to the top of the hill and can feel the whole circuit beneath you,” said Hamilton. “It is one of the best challenges in Formula One.”
If that is not nerve-wrecking enough, add the fickle climate. Spa-Francorhamps is the place where the likes of Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna proved they were the masters of the rain and used it well to claim some of their titles.
Often the fan flags are whipped up by a wind that can bring the darkest of low-flung clouds within minutes from somewhere behind the endless hills.
The forecast is for weekend rain and temperatures around 15 C (60 F).
One week later, the drivers will be in the sunnier climate of Italy for the Monza Grand Prix.
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