LAPLAND's MAGIC

For long they have written Iceman-stories about Kimi Räikkönen during his F1-career.

On Thursday the reporters making these stories became at once real Icemen. At least it seemed that way when I was frozen from my cheeks up while standing in the snowbanks up to my knees in a windy -20 degrees just waiting to see a glimpse of Räikkönen's Red Bull-Citroen when he tested on the test-stage in Vennivaara.

Like Unto Mononen said, Lapland's nature still creates a strange magic. When Räikkönen left to WRC-rally challenges he vacuumed like magic the international media from all over the world to the Arctic Lapland. The organisers are counting that there's even more foreign reporters than there are Finnish reporters. The furthest stories will travel from Rovaniemi all the way to New Zealand.

It's a long way from Vennivaara's forest to Ferrari's home in Maranello. They arranged almost at the same time with the National Finland Rally their biggest celebration when Ferrari presented their new F10-car to the wide media-people

According to the original transcript Räikkönen should have been on Thursday in Maranello in that presentation because he had a signed contract of this year in Ferrari in his pocket.

After the contract was broken in September Räikkönen hasn't given even a thought to Ferrari's future.

If F10 is a successful car, Kimi got at least a feather in his hat for keeping during the prolonged designing time the sharpened axes of criticism buried and drove a victory and a few other good results for Ferrari during the endseason.

It would be Lapland's magic if Räikkönen could on Friday and Saturday challenge Dani Sordo immediately. Sordo has taken his place in WRC in the top 3.

Sordo will have to go first to the first stage and Räikkönen gets to drive beside the snowbanks with the ideal starting number 3.

Source: Turun Sanomat
Courtesy: Nicole