No engine change for Raikkonen 06 Apr 2007
There was good news for Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen on Friday afternoon as it emerged that the Australian Grand Prix winner will not, after all, require his engine to be changed ahead of qualifying at Sepang.
A water leak in the latter stages of the Albert Park race had prompted concerns over the V8’s potential reliability in Malaysia, but after last week’s test and Friday’s two practice sessions in Kuala Lumpur, Ferrari say they will retain the engine.
“We are going to keep it - no reason to change it,” Raikkonen said, before Ferrari’s Jean Todt added: “All the rumours started from speculation. It’s true that at the end of the Australian race Kimi had a problem with and lost some water, but very little.
“We made more checks than if it didn’t happen, and he simulated the problem during free testing here last week, and after all that we are satisfied that nothing demonstrated that we should change our programme from Australia.”
The news means fans should get to see a fair fight between Raikkonen and team mate Felipe Massa on Sunday afternoon. In Melbourne they started at opposite ends of the grid after an engine-change penalty for the Brazilian.
