Kimi Räikkönen, in his fourth rally with the Citroen Junior Team, during last weekend in Turkey, made his first top 5. A beautiful performance for the F1 World Champion 2007, pleased to see his progress race after race. "I'm getting better everywhere," he acknowledges to AUTOhebdo this week. "You know very well what are the steps! Everything happens at once. Little by little, everything seems both better and easier. "However, the Finn knows he still lacks the level of attack that his car provides him. To progress, Kimi Raikkonen has decided not to take risks, a strategy that allowed him to score his first points. "What counts is to accumulate kilometres, to be at the finish line. The points are the consequence. Their number depends on the race events that affected the best drivers. In Jordan, I found the specials so difficult that I have never taken risks. My points were due to simply being at the finish. In Turkey, it was not quite the same thing. I simply tried to drive. Then I was able to regularly take on Villagra and Wilson. This is not the "top" yet, but it's some satisfaction."
However, the Finn faced severe difficulties, as in the Rally of Jordan, where the complexity of the surface forced him to go at a modest pace."Jordan, I found it horrible. The roads are blind, and tortuous. I felt lost. I really wanted to be at the finish and for this to happen, I had no other choice but to be slow. "
Kimi Raikkonen thus learns step by step, in a discipline that he discover with every kilometre. "I knew it would be difficult. It's not worse than what I expected. Except in Jordan. There, I really suffered." But, as he remains lucid, the Finn is nonetheless ambitious. "I know the depth of the gap that separates me from the top. I know that I have just succeeded in getting intermediate lap times comparably to theirs. All I have left is to multiply these moments. I'm progressing, but fifth, six minutes behind, it's not what I want. "
Source: Autohebdo.fr
Translation from French: Fran
