Landmark 100th race for Raikkonen.

McLaren-Mercedes team leader, Kimi Raikkonen will notch up his 100th outing in Formula One this weekend, when he starts Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was delighted with his third place finish in Germany last weekend and is now eager to maintain that sort of form in Budapest, especially as it is something of a milestone race and the closest thing he gets to a 'home' grand prix.

As it is his 100th event and as it is also the one year anniversary of McLaren-Mercedes' partnership with Johnnie Walker, to celebrate these milestones, Kimi will get a special commemorative helmet to wear in Sunday's grand prix, which will have gold leaf incorporated into the design, alluding to the current centenary year of Johnnie Walker Gold.

"The MP4-21 was definitely quicker in Germany than the previous race in France, and it had great balance. We have made a step forward and I am looking forward to getting back out on track again this weekend and racing for another podium finish," said the 'ice-man'.

"The Hungarian race is like a home Grand Prix for me too so I am always really looking forward to it, we get all the crazy Finnish fans that come down to watch the racing and I hope I can put in a great result for them."

As for the track itself, in some respects it is similar to Monaco and as the MP4-21 ran well there, before Kimi was forced to retire, he is hoping that is some sort of good omen that they allow him to beat the likes of Michael Schumacher and notch up his first win of the season.

"At the Hungaroring, the main factor is downforce, we don't need to worry about aero efficiency or drag. This is as a result of all the slow, tight corners, and you will see all the cars running with maximum wing," he explained.

"Overtaking here is tricky, nevertheless I passed two cars on the first lap last year. It is a bit better since they modified the first corner, but qualifying is very important, perhaps more so than at any other race apart from Monaco. Along with Monaco the Hungaroring is the most demanding in terms of engine cooling, as there are no real straights and the temperature is always so high. So we will run with bigger radiators and apertures to increase the cooling within the car. The race has in the past been affected by the dusty track surface however they now have a truck that cleans up the dust beforehand so track conditions are more constant over the weekend, which makes set-up less tricky."

Last year Raikkonen won the Hungarian GP, while he was second in 2003, fourth in 2002 and seventh in 2001, his debut year with Sauber. He failed to finish in 2004.