KIMI ENJOYS HIS FIRST TASTE OF GERMANY

Red Bull Rallye Deutschland day one report

Germany's Rallye Deutschland, round nine of the World Rally Championship and only the second asphalt event for Red Bull's former Grand Prix champion Kimi Raikkonen, is well-known for providing three days of stark contrasts.

What else do you expect from a country that boasts over 1500 different types of sausage? The average German gets through more than 30 kilos of sausage annually, meaning that it would take only 41 people to eat the equivalent weight in sausages of Kimi's Citroen C4 World Rally Car in one year.

Some of the types of sausage available in Germany would not be to everybody's taste. Gehirnwurst is a sausage made mostly out of pig's brain. Or alternatively there is Hertzwurst, for those who prefer pig's heart. And then you get some quite unexpected ingredients too. Weisswurst, for example, is a sausage whose constituents include cream and eggs.

For Kimi, the diet today was made up of six tough asphalt stages around Trier, where the Rallye Deutschland has traditionally been based. 'The Iceman' started the day's action eighth on the road - and that proved to be slightly problematic for him as the stages went on. With so many leading competitors in front, Kimi had to cope with a large amount of stones and loose gravel thrown up onto the road that made the surface extremely slippery and unstable.

On only his second World Championship asphalt rally, it wasn't easy for him to find the right braking points compared to the other more experienced drivers. Nonetheless, 'the Iceman' kept his cool. At the end of the first day he was eighth: comfortably in the points and with only a small gap to the person in front. There's still a long way to go and everything left to play for.

"Even before coming here, I knew that Germany would be the most difficult of the asphalt rallies because it is very specialised, and I was certainly right about that," said Kimi. "It's quite a strange rally, because each one of the three days is very different and has its own specific things. Here you need experience, so the main thing for me is obviously to get to the finish. It helps if you have a very good feeling for these roads, like Sebastien Loeb who has won here since the rally first joined the World Championship. We've obviously got a lot of work still to do, especially compared to him, but it was already getting better in the afternoon and it's just a question of building up the kilometres. We didn't make any real mistakes so I'm quite happy. Tomorrow we're going to try and carry on like this, but of course tomorrow is also a completely different type of day, so effectively we have to start learning all over again!"

Co-driver Kaj Lindstrom has plenty of experience in Germany but he did not finish his last Rallye Deutschland in 2003: a statistic that he is hoping to remedy on this occasion.

"We've got off to a good start, but it's not been an easy day," said the Finn in the right-hand seat. "The main thing is that we've made no mistakes and had a clean run through the stages. We've been making more progress with the pace notes and although the stages today were not straightforward, we worked very well together and I think we've got a solid base to move forwards from now. Our aim is to get some points here in Germany, and so far we're on course to do that. Let's just keep it going..."

Source: RedBull Rallye

KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN EMBARKS ON HIS PORTUGUESE ADVENTURE

Red Bull Rally de Portugal day one report

The tourist resorts around Faro, according to some people, resemble a Garden of Eden. There is field after field of lush green grass, interrupted only by the occasional strip of sand and deep hole.

The reason for this unusual topography is that Faro is a Mecca for golf players. They come from all over the world, dressed up in pastel jumpers, bright white shorts, and shoes that look like they were borrowed from a gangster in 1940s Chicago.

Kimi Raikkonen and his co-driver Kaj Lindstrom, Red Bull athletes on the World Rally Championship this year, are also keen golfers. But the only handicap they faced today were the tough gravel stages of the Rally de Portugal: a classic but incredibly demanding event on the World Rally Championship calendar.

Having not competed for over a month, Kimi chose to make a careful start to get used to the particularly tricky conditions. Even though it is against the genetic nature of most rally drivers, this sensible approach paid off and Kimi was rewarded with a provisional place in the points at the overnight halt. His firm aim is to get to the end, so it was a perfect start. Now, he just has to keep it all going for the next two days.

"From the beginning, my idea was to get to the finish of today without any problems," said the 'iceman'. "We didn't push so hard and we did everything we needed to do. It's still very tough for me as I'm just starting out in rallying so it's important to be sure of getting plenty of kilometres. Probably the most difficult thing about today is that the grip has been changing a lot, and so it helped when we were able to do the stages again in the afternoon. We also changed the suspension set-up at midday, going a bit stiffer. It was basically OK for the first day, but I still need to get some more speed. I didn't have so much confidence in the morning but it was definitely better in the afternoon."

Kimi's co-driver Kaj Lindstrom has years of experience of controlling excited drivers: a skill that proved to be very useful on the undulating gravel roads close to Faro.

"The afternoon was better than the morning," said Kaj. "We found a lot of improvement and the driving confidence was there, which was good. We made some small changes to the pace notes but nothing massive. Kimi handled everything well."

However, the Portuguese adventure is only just beginning - because the experienced Kaj had some words of warning about what to expect over the next two days and 11 stages. Hot temperatures are predicted over the weekend, which only add to the challenge.

"The stages we did today were actually the easiest of the whole rally," said the man who sits in the navigator's seat. "It's going to get more and more difficult on Saturday and Sunday, so the really hard part is still to come!"

A final word about golf. Most golfers in the resorts around Faro are male, with comparatively few women out on the courses. One theory is that the name of the game stands for 'gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.'

This is pure fiction One look at the male golfers near Faro is enough to tell that not all of them are gentlemen. With the notable exception of Kimi and Kaj of course.

Source: RallyBuzz