The Finn ended Saturday's second day of the rally more than 34 minutes behind the leaders after going off the road and getting stuck in a snow bank during Friday's competition. But after a series of promising stage times on Saturday, including one sixth-fastest time on SS15, the 2007 Formula 1 World Champion felt he was starting to get the hang of his new Citroen C4 WRC. "Yes, it was really good," said Kimi after only his second full day on a World Championship rally. "I didn't like the first stage on Saturday morning so much; then we stalled the engine and got stuck for a little bit on the second stage. After then it all went really well for me; it was a nice day. I'm feeling more confident with the car and we had no problems at all. I always knew that finding the right driving style would take a bit of time, but now it is gradually coming. Hopefully we can have a strong final day; I'm feeling quite confident."
Also in an upbeat mood, Kimi's co-driver Kaj Lindstrom said Raikkonen shared at least one critical rally attribute with one of his previous drivers - four-time World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen.
"You can't really compare Kimi to Tommi but one thing they have in common is that they both have fantastic natural speed," said Kaj. "You can always improve your technique and together with Kimi this is something that we are trying to do, but you can't actually learn the speed. Today really showed how when you combine the right speed with the right technique things begin to come together. I've been very impressed by Kimi's progress and we're going to build on this in future."
Source: WRC
