Thursday March 14th, 2002

Finn Kimi Raikkonen is planning to give McLaren teammate David Coulthard a good run for his money this season.

The 22-year old, who made his Formula One debut with the Sauber team last year, finished in third place at the Australian Grand Prix while Scot Coulthard was forced into retirement with a gearbox problem after having outqualified Raikkonen on Saturday.

Despite being outpaced by Coulthard during most of the weekend in Melbourne, Raikkonen is confident he will be able to beat the Scot in the remaining races.

"For sure I can challenge him," Raikkonen told a press conference in Malaysia on Thursday. "As I said, the race was quite strange, some difficulties in the beginning, but in testing we had pretty equal speed and we will probably find some other guys are quicker on certain circuits and others quicker in others, but I will try and beat him every time.

"I hope to be more often on the podium, especially in the middle, but the team is pushing and I am doing my best. We are aiming for a win. It's hard against Ferrari and Williams but we are doing our best."

Published at 13:54:21 GMT