It's time we are heading for Germany. They say it's a tarmac surface, but most of all, for me, it brings a new challenge to go fast on the concrete roads, too.Obviously, I know well the Red Bull Citroën Junior Team us to get through the weekend without mistakes and errors. This is the second tarmac rally of the season. We should heve the pace for the good result - as long as we avoid the biggerish mistakes.
In Rally Finland I got the luxury of having done it once before. But the rest of the season I have just all new places to go rallying.
Well, Germany Rally is a brand new race for me, but still it feels nicer to get back to the tarmac rally. Most of the time in Bulgaria was very encouraging for us. But as well we know, it's not helping a single bit this time.
German Rally is so different compared to the stages in Bulgaria. Instead of a whole tarmac rally we have plenty of miles on the roads surfaced with concrete. What I've heard, they are very slippery and we have to handle il with care down there.
Obviously, there is a lot talking of the pace notes in every rally, but this time it's even more important to get them perfecly right. We have to very precise and very careful with making the pace notes for this rally.
The most extreme points is the 48 kilometre special stage. It's the longest stage we'll have with these WRC cars. While you do that twice, it's almost one third of the total of the special stage kilometres in this rally.
I presume, it's going to be pretty hot in the cabin in that stage and, for sure, it will show the importance of the experience much more than in any other place. Obviously, it's the stage you'll win or lose in a big way, too.
After Rally Finland we had a couple of tests in Germany. Everything went well. The car felt good and we found some new settings for this rally.
Germany has never been good place for me, while I raced in Formula One. There was not a single weekend, we got everything nicely together. Always something went wrong.
But I'm not going to take any pressure of the old times. This is a different kind of a challenge and my number one hope is to finish the rally without any major hiccups. If we managed to do it, fine. We need all the miles available to clinch more the rallying experience we need so much in this point of my racing career.
After Jyväskylä I chilled out a little while with trial and golf. Of course, I trained every day to be ready for this new interesting rally event. Let's wait and see what we manage to achieve this time.
Source: Kimiraikkonen.com
