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Thursday July 30, 2009

Raikkonen makes his rally debut in Finland this weekend

HELSINKI: Ferrari ace Kimi Raikkonen, fresh from finishing second in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, takes time off from Formula One this weekend to compete in the Rally of Finland.

A keen rally fan Raikkonen will be at the wheel of a Fiat Abarth in the S2000 category of this ninth leg of the world rally championship led by Ford’s Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen.

Raikkonen’s co-driver, Kaj Lindstrom, says the 2007 F1 champion is a natural behind the wheel of a rally car.

“His handling and driving skills, like the lines he takes and so on, are at a very high level — outstanding, actually,” Lindstrom, who used to team up with mutliple rally champioon Tommi Makinen, told wrc.com.

“On the test I was quite surprised by how quickly he got used to the gravel and got the car to perform. It’s a very comfortable feeling for me to be in the car with him in Finland — even though it’s a high speed rally. You can see that he controls the car and not the other way around.”

This is the pair’s first gravel rally after competing in two snow and one tarmac rally previously and Lindstrom insisted winning was not the priority.

“It’s all about fun. We haven’t talked about any result that we want to have and I think that’s the best way to do it.

“If we can do three good days without mistakes, and hopefully without punctures, then we will get some result for sure, but with the amount of experience he has there’s no point in setting any targets.

“We’ll just see. We’ll go there with the aim of having fun and making life difficult for the other drivers!“ — AFP

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