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KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) –
Kimi Raikkonen before the start of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne last week. The former world champion says he is saving his celebrations for the end of the year despite last week’s brilliant win in Australia.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen Thursday said he was saving his celebrations for the end of the year despite last week’s brilliant win in Australia.
The Finn said that after winning Sunday’s season-opening race in Melbourne, he left the partying to his Lotus crew and flew straight to Kuala Lumpur ahead of this week’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
“I had a flight in the evening so we just had a quick meeting and I had to go to the hotel to pick up some stuff and go,” said Raikkonen, who is nicknamed “Iceman” and is renowned for his love of the high life.
“For sure they had some celebrations, it’s just one race — hopefully at the end of the year we can have a good celebration.”
Raikkonen also said Sunday’s win had not changed his preparations for this week’s race — and he denied he was seen as the man to beat at the tropical Sepang circuit near the Malaysian capital.
“There’s no target (on my back),” he said. “We’re not doing any different things this week from what we did previously.
“So whether people think we are the leaders makes no difference to how we work, what we’re going to do this weekend or any other weekend. We’ll try to do our best and hopefully we can score some good points.”
Raikkonen claimed his debut Formula One win at Sepang in 2003 and he also won in 2008, mixed with four failures to finish. Sunday was his second victory since returning last year from a two-year stint in rallying.
