Räikkönen promises to increase his speed next

Kimi Räikkönen has now drove this season's two rallies without making any bigger mistakes. In Sweden he was 8th and in Portugal he was 7th.

We didn't experience an afternoon flash like in Sweden - several stages in a row in top 5 - in Räikkönen's first rally on gravel.

– I'm kind of like a score-automaton, Räikkönen joked.

In Portugal Petter Solberg went past him on the powerstage with a bang.

– We knew he was coming since he was so close. We could have come totally super but we didn't take the risk, instead we came to the finish, Räikkönen said although he is always bugged when even one place is lost.

ICE1 Racing -team's Citroen came to Portugal with wrong setups. On Saturday the setups were right but they got the car to it's best only on Sunday. After the rally ended it would have been in the best stitch to start the race.

– At least we learned about the car when the setups weren't nearly what they should have been. I guess it's easier now to go to the next rally.

No surprising situations

Then what about the progress - do you feel that you took a step forward like in Sweden the second time?

– It didn't go exactly like that. This race was only driving. It made no sense to push too hard. Sure it went better when you really tried. We took it pretty peacefully almost all the time.

– When I have been driving more and got more experience those situations won't come up anymore. Next I have to try and drive faster now that the notes are kind of safe and listening to them has also improved. That way you won't run into those surprises, Räikkönen said.

If Rally Jordan is cancelled on Monday, then Räikkönen will participate in Rally Sardinia which wasn't in his preliminary schedule.

Has Räikkönen caught up with the top drivers?

– Still an ice-figure skater won't start making goals in hockey at once because the genres are so different. In rally you can count with both hands fingers the requirements you have to master 100% in order to get in the same speed as the top. Kimi has learned a lot of each of those but not enough. The fact that he has such a good speed with this short training is a sign of talent, Kaj Lindström said.

Turun Sanomat, Faro

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole