Kimi's column: TO THE HOME RACE IN FIRST CLASS

Kimi Finnish Rally preview in Finnish

I've been waiting for this for so long when being in motorsport and now I finally get to drive for the first time in the very first class a World Championship-race in Finland. We drove in Jyväskylä with Kaitsu last year already but you can't compare it to this. This WRC-car is a completely different machine than the 2000 was a year ago. The speeds a insanely much harder.

In F1 somewhere in Hungary the benches were filled with Finland's flags but it's completely different to drive a real home race. We are in high feelings when there are lots of people coming to the jubilee-rally and all of us Finnish drivers will get a lot of support alongside the route.

This is my highlight of the season. A home race still means the most for every driver.

It was a little helpful that we have already drove through the route. The basics are done.

Pace noting has started to go better all the time.

Oh well, we didn't finish the rally last time because of that tiny screw-up on Saturday night during the last stage in Väärinmaja. This time the same spot won't be lurking. Now I have that sort of a machine that goes a lot faster.

I just have to be really sharp so that the car stays on the road.

We got a really good testing under the belt again. Everything worked insanely well and we got the car better. I dig these roads. This is now the 7th WRC-rally this year and after so many starts it becomes all the time more easier to understand how to work on the car.

It's way more cooler to jump in the cabin and start pushing the home race when I have chances to drive faster than last year. It won't yet change the fact that even though we go faster, the dudes in the front go insanely fast when compared to others.

We are again going to follow the same scheme. For us the most important thing is that we finish the rally. That's the only way to score points and we want them. It's completely realistic to be in positions 5-10 with an even performance provided we don't screw up. It's a good goal.

Kankkunen's Juha is making a comeback and it's really interesting to see what his pace is. He has drove Jyskälä 20 times so nothing there will suprise him in any way. Welcome back!

Source: kimiraikkonen.com
Courtesy: Nicole