Well, they've apparently managed to retrieve the Citroën from the snowbank and Räikkönen/Lindström are continuing the rally. They lost a good half an hour and aren't going to be fighting for top positions but they're back in business, so to speak. Which is nice; my boy needs all the practice he can get! And then some more. Also, it'd be sort of fun and useful to have more than one short special stage to see how he compares to Sordo on snowy roads.

I must remind people to be little more realistic with their expectations

Rally is pretty much the complete opposite of F1. This will be purely learning year for Kimi. The only thing that matters is he´ll get more stages under his belt. Whether he loses 1 or 2 seconds per kilometre, isn´t the big thing. There will be rallies where he´ll lose far more than that. It is extremely unlikely he´ll match any of the WRC cars this year, at all.

Nobody knows how long it will take before KR MIGHT challenge top guns occasionally. We know it took several years from Sebastian Loeb, Tommi Mäkinen and others to get really fast in the WRC - after several years of junior level rallying, lotsa wins, few titles, etc. That is very different from Kimi´s situation: one WRC test, one practise rally and off you go.

lol raikonen

Now I know how fragile rally racing is. For sure Kimi is not disturbed by this, he said he had no expectation. The first stage show some result that could be stretched for tomorrow. Keep on Going!

It seems there's some doubt as to whether he hit a tree or not.

Perfect analysis sir!

Well done Kimi!

You belong to F1, we are waiting for your comeback!


But hey only 0.5s per km behind one of the best rally drivers nowadays.

Oh dear! Looks like it would be back to f1 soon perhaps with a spot with Toro Rosso

and THAT was his mistake...

No one doubts Kimi has talent...but Rallying is such a unique discipline and the guys at the very top really do have a set skills different to all other motorsport drivers in the ability to react to the changing conditions, but at the end of the day...the margin for error is VERY small.

I suspect...and the onboard will probably confirm as much, that Kimi just got a little excited/carried away and didnt quite hear the call from Kaj clearly enough, that the corner was actually tighter.

The most important thing is...they are both safe, he learned a valuable lesson and he can progress. It might also be that his pace notes were not quite right, again another skill that will improve with time. All Kimi has to do is realise that he actually has ZERO benchmarks right now....it is not about what anyone else does.... He needs mileage under his belt and with that mileage the speed will naturally come...

Who else has the same contract? Loeb? I mean not with Citroen but with RB actually?

That was quite a healthy start apparently a video was shown on Finnish TV, he never hit a tree, but Kaj is reported as saying they'll continue tomorrow, I dont know whether that was at the scene of the off, or at the end of the stage though.

I think that given this is a essentially a test it's better to try and find the limits here rather than in a points scoring WDC event.

Looks like he may be able to continue.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y...sl=fi&tl=en

Loeb drives for Citroen.

I wonder how many rallies he will finish this year. looks like not so many..

News out: KImi might start even EK3 after 4 PM today!

It is now confirmed that Finnish driver to continue rallies today.

If it wasn't a tree what was it? Polar bear?

He's just seen how good the McLaren is for this year.

I think he has approximately 5-6 millions reason do not be bother about it.

Good post...

Interestingly, Kimi did point out he has no chances to challenge Sordo. Still, I too suspect if he got carried away after S1? In F1, after one really fast lap one tries to repeat it lap after lap. In rallying, there is little repetition and one cannot fully memorize each corner. Especially for newbie, margin of error must be far greater. Otherwise it´s "oops" in every rally, as the corner was little tighter than you expected, or you missed the stone, etc. It can be almost deceiving; "I was as fas as my teammate, but...". Teammates Hirvonen & Latvala show us nice example how difficult it is. In his first WRC years, Hirvonen was quite consistent but not as fast as the champs. When Latvala got his hands on fast car, he was fast but wrecked way, way too much.

Of course, unlike Kimi, Hirvonen & Latvala were already pro rally pilots, with plenty of experience. It will be interesting to see how well Kimi can balance speed / margin of error. Let´s hope he can remember his own words about not being ready to challenge Top Dogs yet; attempts to match them at this point will only lead to crashing.

We´ll see! Perhaps losing any chances for great finish turns out well for Kimi. Now he can no more dream of miracle win, but can rather focus on consistency and reasons for the gap between him and Sordo.

It was a polar bear, sitting in a tree

Exactly, my friend, that means he is even quicker than expected. Without much experience in rally that would mean hitting the trees from time to time, unfortunatey, but let's hope he will not follow Latvala's crash out passion.

What was Ron Speak, the famous one...? Go on Kimi!

It is now confirmed that he hit Luca di Montezemolo's ego

Winner

Ahh, the car would be damaged beyond recognision if that was the case...


ps. he hit a tree, snapping it in half, but no serious damage to car

So its pure carnage from the get go,eh? Those trees must be silently screaming in terror Still not a bad time at all .However Kimi do save some cars for the real rallies,mate

Kimi & Kaj confirm Kimi simply misheard a note, so they went off. The car got stuck on snow, until some spectators showed up with shovels to help them out.

"It was my mistake" - Kimi

Autosport people have strange fantasies http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81125:

• "Raikkonen then drove through the third stage..." - which is about to start in 10 minutes from now
• "Sordo continues to lead the rally in the only other WRC entry" - there is at least one Focus WRC and one Escort WRC

Its nice to hear he is even listening to Kaj

Slightly lazy journalism!



As I suspected....its very VERY easy to get carried away. It's actually a good thing, as Kaj will now know he needs to repeat or highlight a little louder the slightly trickier corners, but I am pleased he is able to continue, there is nothing worse than feeling you are out of an event you have planned a long time for, on just the first or 2nd stage.

Kimi has popped up 2nd:

1.( 1)Dani Sordo A18 7:13,2
2.( 3)Kimi Räikkönen A18 7:25,9 0:12,7

The gap to Sordo doubled though - no doubt he's taking it very easily after the crash..

came in 2nd on stage 3




1.( 1)Dani Sordo A18 7:13,2


2.( 3)Kimi Räikkönen A18 7:25,9 0:12,7

That's probably about right...if he can hold that pace for the rest of the day... Job well done!

Zero car heading to stage 4 now... I am very impressed with the GPS tracker. Nicely laid out, easy to navigate.. very good.

Well, he's pretty much supposed to be second... He's powerless against Sordo (as he should be!) and the rest of the guys' cars are powerless against that Citroën (as they should be!). That said, I notice he's 'only' losing something like 0.5-1 sec/km to a proper rally driver in similar machinery and that's not a bad effort, considering.

Kimi ran 3rd SS only 12 secs slower than Sordo! Less than 1 sec per km loss after crashing out! He is crazy!

Tanak at 56 seconds slower on stage 3 must have had a slight problem.... possibly hunting for Polar bears in snow banks too!

You have to remember not all stages are the same legth...and stage 3 was quite short, so has the stage length increases or decreases, so should the gap to Sordo...

I wonder if he ran into that near transparent Fox's glacier mint. ?

Question for some of you Fin rally fans......

What has happened to Marko Ipatti? I am watching his times on the Arctic and they seem quite slow? bearing in mind that this guy was the British Rally Champion in 2000, seems to have lost a lot of pace?

Stage 4 seems another slightly smaller stage... then stage 5 seems a bit of a longer test!

This seems like an ideal start for Kimi. Fast, bit of a scare, able to continue. Perfect

Looking forward to some videos.

If we are talking about sec per km - it does not matter how long stage is - his average pace is VERY good for the rookie, isn't it?

I am impressed by the pace, even if Sordo isn't particularly strong in this kind of surface. Would like to know if the cars between the 2 of them have no difference at all, or if Sordo has a slightly more advanced car like he'll have in the WRC rounds (main works team vs Junior team), but I guess we'll never know.

Crashing at stage 2 could've been bad news cause it could've meant he'd sit out the rest of the rally, but since he's kept going, it's alright. What matters right now is gathering kms of experience, having some shunts is normal, despite the fact he obviously won't want to have them!

Not so... on the longer stages, thats when the rookie struggles the further into the stage you are...basically your brain starts to melt with all the pace notes...and as such you start to slow slightly..on the shorter stuff its easer to stay sharp and focused..

But yes...considering how inexperienced he is of a WRC car...pretty impressive..

Very nice run for Salo through stage 4 only 18 seconds off Sordo..

I didn't know that

another kimi crash on stage 4?

Onboard from Salo's car showing where Kimi went off.

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/ralli/uutiset.s...2010/01/1044919

2nd stage btw.

I dont think he's starting second after Sordo from now on, no reports of any offs yet.

Judging from what?