RallySprint: KIMI ENCHANTS

On the tarmac of the Lanterna the Finnish showed he is on the right track

Maybe this time here we are at last. After six months of full immersion in his new world, Kimi Räikkönen is on the right track to become a rally driver. And maybe he has found the right way in Italy, in Liguria, where he fought well against a driver of the Ogier’s caliber. Without forgetting the stars of the Tarmac Trophy. Different trajectories almost from all the others, “track lines ” we could say, Räikkönen at the Lanterna has finally put together the pieces of his personal jigsaw puzzle. At least about the tarmac, that was a new ground for him in rallies and with a WRC car. The only experience he had in the past was the Marca, last year, with just few stages before losing a wheel from his Grande Punto Abarth S2000. In these conditions, after he tested his C4 WRC during the shakedown only, the Finnish has immediately kept as the same pace as that of more experienced people than him. And this in a difficult situation, where the ground of the first three stages kept changing almost at every curve, because of the intermittent rain.

A Räikkönen finally at his ease in that sport he loves and for which he left the F1 that he didn’t love anymore. A pluky Räikkönen, who in the longest stage of 27 km, in the first run made crazy the brakes, while in the second run he almost destroyed the front left wheel and the rear right one during the “cuts”, trying to gain tenths and to keep behind Ogier. “We tried, but it was not possible” says the peaceful Kaj Lindström, the factotum co-driver who cares about Kimi as a brooding hen with its chicks. Ok, it didn’t succeed, but the exploit will remain.

Always under examination

“This is just the twelveth rally of my life” Kimi was telling exactly before the race with a little shyness, even modesty, but not to find justifications. Or maybe yes. Behind that mask apparently impenetrable, probably “Eyes of Ice “ Kimi must not often have been comfortable this year. Every time he had to face a new examination and just seldom he has obtained a pass mark. It wasn’t easy. No-one before him has ever faced the leap from F1 to rally so suddenly and at a so high level. Going, almost without net, to challenge against people like Loeb and friends, who know by heart the stages of the championship and who know how to prepare the right setup of the WRC car, is not easy at all. Neither is it for a F1 world champion. It even seems a presumptuous thing. And maybe it is a little. But the Räikkönen’s approach at the new sport was not presumptuous at all, on the contrary, it happened with humility. You have never seen a F1 champion or of another sport, leaving everything and beginning all over again, at the not so young age (for this sport) of 30. Kimi has begun in rallies when the others have reached the success and they are already thinking to stop. ...

All and now for Kimi.

Much more softer was the apprenticeship of Robert Kubica, the other F1 driver who loves rallies. The Polish races every time he can and always on the tarmac, at least so far. When he definitely moves to road races, he will be already a rally driver. Not Kimi. He didn’t give himself this time. He has wanted to try to do everything and immediatly, live. His balance sheet after six months is poor, but just because the target he chose was practically unattainable. In Sweden he was at his third race on ice, the second with a WRC car. He showed off himself in a festival of out of roads but he didn’t make big damages at the car and in those conditions is already something good. In Mexico he was at his debut on the gravel, with a top car, and he was going not bad at all. “He goes faster than music” they say in France when someone exaggerates and misses the beat. And Kimi in Mexico exaggerated, but simply because he wanted to go flat out. And we think it’s normal, for one whose job is to be a racing driver…

Then there was Jordan where he got his first points. But the eighth place obtained in the Middle East rally didn’t satisfy him, and he let us know making a gesture with his hand. Then, the first ray of light, the fifth place in Turkey. Always with a huge gap from the top (over 6 minutes) but in front of much more experienced drivers than him, like for example Matthew Wilson. Who is young, experienced, and with a top package. “In Turkey I liked myself” whispers Kimi with a thread of a voice. After he missed the New Zealand, that was not in his schedule, Räikkönen arrived in Portugal, where “I had more difficulties than I expected and I was not able to do anything good” Iceman explains.

Now the tarmac is coming.

And now, Bulgaria, the promising tarmac after the good race at Lanterna, then Finland where he has already raced with the S2000, going fast, then again tarmac in Germany, a technical and difficult race. They are three rallies where Kimi can do really good. Then we have the great final, with two races certainly difficult for him like Japan and Wales and two ones on tarmac like France and Spain, where he might give a blow from his paw again. At the end Kimi will decide what to do, if he continues in those rallies which he loves or not. “No pressure, I’m not in hurry to decide”, he whispers.

Source: Rally Sprint

Courtesy: _TaniaS_