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Kimi Räikkönen was the special observed of the Rally of Bulgaria. The Finnish has a particular feeling with the tarmac, his natural ground, the surface on which he has grown, and on which he has immediately shown to be at his ease even in rally, catching a great second place at Lanterna Rally, one month ago, after he fought with Ogier. And Kimi in Bulgaria didn’t disappoint at all: he started the race with a performance to frame, he was even fourth overall after the SS3, ahead the two official Ford drivers, Hirvonen and Latvala!
But then the Finnish went out, in SS4, jeopardizing in this way his race. In that stage, at the second run at Belmeken, the ex Ferrari driver was competing with Loeb and Sordo until the third split, and in the last but one split he was fifth at just 5’’8 from the wild French. It was fatal for him a left curve, 8 km to go.
"I arrived too fast in that curve – Räikkönen admitted – and for this reason I went out. I’m here to learn, and making mistakes you learn. I was doing good laps, I was going very fast, it’s a real shame, but unfortunately these things happen when you are pushing hard.” Then the Citroen Junior Team made a miracle, re-building the C4 car number 8 and giving the opportunity to Räikkönen to be at the start of the second day thanks to Super Rally rule.
"The most difficult thing this morning was to find the right motivation for Kimi to be fast again, after the ten minutes lost yesterday” explained his co-driver Kaj Lindström. We have to admit that Makinen’s ex co-driver was really good to motivate Räikkönen, who raised from 26th to 14th position. To point out the fifth time in the first run of the Sestrimo stage and the sixth at Lyubnitsa. “A useful day to make experience on tarmac – said Kimi, laconic as usual – and we are gaining positions, we see where we will able to be at the end of the race.” Räikkönen was not saying it, but he wanted the tenth position: he could reach Henning Solberg. Then, after an issue with the rear stabilizer bar, in the end Kimi had to be satisfied of the 11th place.
Now Räikkönen is ready to run his home race, in Finland. “A race that he already knows – remembers Lindström – so it should help us, even if last year we have raced with a Super2000, a completely different car from the C4 WRC.”
Source: AutoSprint
Courtesy:_TaniaS_
