Ferrari star Kimi Raikkonen thinks 2016 Formula One title contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton would both make worthy champions.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes team-mates enter the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand prix weekend 12 points apart in the Drivers\u2019 standings, with current leader Rosberg only needing a podium finish to be crowned for the first time.<\/p>\n
It has been suggested that Hamilton\u2019s reliability issues have eased the way for his German rival but Raikkonen, who erased a seven-point gap at the final round of the 2007 campaign to win that year\u2019s championship, feels a Rosberg title should not be belittled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what will happen on Sunday obviously, we\u2019ll see on Sunday and over the weekend,\u201d the 36-year-old said. \u201cWhen I was in that situation obviously we had nothing to lose, so we go as any other race.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a strong weekend [in Brazil 2007] and a strong last part of the year so obviously that helped. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a point in doing anything different than you normally do. You always come to a race and try to do the maximum.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur only chance was to try to win and then see what happens to the other guys. As a team they did a very good job of it and then obviously had some luck involved and all things fell into place, so who knows what will happen on Sunday but whoever wins deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This weekend will also see two of Raikkonen\u2019s contemporaries leave the F1 stage, as Felipe Massa and Jenson Button prepare to make their\u00a0final start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left once already so I kind of know how it feels,\u201d the Finn replied when asked to comment on their departure. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s their choice and I\u2019m sure they will have a lot of fun and I wish them all the best for whatever they do in their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, things will change in F1 in the future and all of us will leave one day and that\u2019s just how it goes. They\u2019ve both had a good long career in it and I\u2019m sure they will have some other things to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raikkonen left F1 at the end of 2009 and made his return in 2012, having tried his hand at rallying and NASCAR during his time away from grand prix racing.<\/p>\n
Grosjean column: Magnussen and THAT crash in Brazil<\/p>\n
Chris Medland’s 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix preview<\/p>\n
FEATURE: Hamilton v Rosberg: 2016 F1 drivers’ title permutations<\/p>\n
TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the McLaren-Honda MP4-31<\/p>\n
2017 driver line-ups so far<\/p>\n
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ferrari star Kimi Raikkonen thinks 2016 Formula One title contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton would both make worthy champions. The Mercedes team-mates enter the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand prix weekend 12 points apart in the Drivers\u2019 standings, with current leader Rosberg only needing a podium finish to be crowned for the first time. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}