Räikkönen rounded out his maiden world championship campaign on Wales Rally GB last week with an eighth-place finish on the rain-hit event, the fifth time this season that the Finn has scored points in his Citroën Junior Team C4 WRC.After completing the final stage of the event, Räikkönen told wrc.com that he wants to stay in the WRC. “I have two options [for next year],” said the 31-year-old. “The first option would be to stay in rally and hopefully we can do this.”
Despite his impressive start to his rallying career following his switch from Formula One at the end of 2009, Raikkonen’s future in the sport remains unclear. He has yet to finalise a drive for next year and a return to Grand Prix racing is still a possibility for 2011.
Lindström, who navigated Räikkönen on all 11 WRC events his countryman started this season, said a second term in rallying will trigger an improvement in form for his driver.
“It will still be another learning year getting to the top but if he stays he’ll get more experience and can only improve,” said Lindström. “Apart from what happened in Spain [when Raikkonen crashed in shakedown and failed to start the event], everything has gone more or less like we expected it would go knowing that he is on a junior level on the rally and there are things to learn.
“For me [his result on Rally GB] is a good finish because it was a difficult rally but he made it well with no mistakes.”
Räikkönen, who scored a total of 25 points to finish 10th in the final drivers’ standings, added: “It’s nice to end my first season in the WRC with a points finish,” he said. “This was one of the most difficult rallies that I competed on, mostly because of the grip changing all the time. The roads were really slippery, but it’s always been a question of trying to work out exactly how slippery they are. Like everything else, this has been a completely new experience for me but I am pleased how it went.”
Source: WRC
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