Räikkönen relaxed into his best rally rhythm

Sweden is Kimi Räikkönen's 20th rally. On Saturday he had his best day so far. Räikkönen found especially in the afternoon a driving rhythm which grew his selfconfidence bigger and the promising SS-times came easily.

In stages Räikkönen was first 6th, then twice 5th and at last 4th fastest. What was surprising was that Räikkönen got so close to Petter Solberg who was driving the same car.

In Lesjofors stage Räikkönen was only 0,2 seconds behind him, in Sågen he was already 2,4 seconds faster than him and then in Fredriksberg he was 0,6 seconds behind him.

How surprised are you over your times?

– It went okay. The driving is just better. It was trickier in the morning but I found the right rhythm in the afternoon.

How close to the limit did you get already?

– I don't know but I do know that these times came easily. It was completely normal driving. It's good that it was found now this afternoon. Now all I have to do is keep the same rhythm on Sunday too.

Räikkönen's best position is 5th in Turkey. However this day was much better since opponents didn't fall off the game like it happened in Turkey.

Do you feel that you have made progress?

– When you train all year you have to learn something. Hopefully the driving will get better from here on. I found the right way to drive and the times came immediately much easier, Räikkönen smiled.

Kaj Lindström warned not to get too excited over the good times.

– This was a clean driving day. I think Kimi drove superbly this afternoon. I have always said that when you drive your own drive and don't make mistakes it will relax the driving, give confidence and the clock also likes it.

– Kimi drove neatly with a good rhythm. Now all he has to do is keep the same rhythm in the same style, Kaj said.

After a difficult Friday Räikkönen climbed up from 11th position to 7th on Saturday right after Sebastien Loeb.

Turun Sanomat, Hagfors

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Räikkönen happy with progress so far

Kimi Räikkönen says he is pleased with the progress he is making aboard his Citroën DS3 WRC - despite driving the car in untested conditions yesterday

The Finn drove a World Rally Car on a WRC event for the first time in Sweden last season and the ex-Formula One world champion admits he has come a long way in the last 12 months.

“My aim is the same as last year, we are driving in the same way and we’re trying to achieve the same thing,” said Räikkönen. “I want to get to know the car more. Still, at the moment, the car is capable of going faster than I am driving it, but we only had one day to test it and this will take more time. I tested for a day, but not in the conditions which we had yesterday morning, with the deeper snow - we tested in icier roads.”

Räikkönen is lying in ninth place, more than four minutes off the leader as the event closes on its halfway point.

His only problems so far have been a spin on SS2 and a puncture on the penultimate stage of day one.

“I touched the snowbank and the car turned around,” said the ICE 1 Racing driver. “But it was nice not to be digging this year like I was when I went off last year!”

Räikkönen’s co-driver Kaj Lindström admitted he has been impressed with what he has seen on their first return to a WRC round in a World Rally Car.

“It’s been a year, or almost a year, that he has been driving and the improvements have come, he’s driving very well.”

Source: WRC.com

Alonso's Ferrari frustrations grow

Reports suggest that Fernando Alonso is becoming more and more disillusioned by Ferrari's failure to compete at the front of the field

After a fast start to the season in which Alonso won the season-opening Bahrain GP, Ferrari have tailed off of late, with the team forced to settle for eight and ninth spot in Turkey, a race that was supposed to be a celebration of their 800th race in the sport.

Reports now suggest that Alonso is becoming highly frustrated with the teams' lack of progress.

"I'm told that Fernando Alonso is very frustrated by Ferrari's rate of development. Compared to his time at McLaren in 2007, when the British team had updates for every race, Ferrari's flow of new parts this season has been very slow, with no more than little tweaks here and there so far," explained BBC commentator Jonathan Legard.

"The result is that the car that started the season right on Red Bull's heels is now, in Alonso's words, 'the fifth quickest'.

"It seems Ferrari have a major upgrade for the European GP at the end of June - a copy of Red Bull's downforce-producing exhaust system, and a new diffuser. But the fear is that it will not leapfrog Ferrari back up the grid because their rivals will have at least kept pace. The team are also puzzled as to why the car is competitive on softer tyres but well off the pace on the harder compound," he added.

Legard's remarks have been solidified by Alonso's admission that even with their planned upgrades, the Italian team will not be at the front of the field.

"We know that McLaren and Red Bull are very far away and we don't know if that's enough. We have to work hard," said Alonso.

"We don't know how long it is going to take, but the truth is that we are almost eight tenths from Red Bull and 6 or 7 tenths from McLaren, and these developments [for Valencia] are not going to give us that much."

Having earlier in the week said that Ferrari could not cope with the developments of the 'bigger teams', team boss Stefano Domenicali remains confident that there is still time for Ferrari to mount a title challenge.

"We are not going to stop developing this car - we are not throwing away these races so far," he said.

"We will continue working on the F10 until the end of the season. The championship is still open and we have seen that anything can happen in the races. We will not give up," he added.

Source: Planet-F1