We have been waiting for this race in a positive way with Kaitsu ever since the speed was nicely found in the beginning of summer in rally Bulgaria.
The season's second new tarmac rally is in France and we get a bit of leverage because the others don't have notes from the last ten years and knowledge of familiar roads. We are all on the same line there.
There was no testing after Japan but we took the rally Vosgien in France as training and to get the feeling. It went well. We got some feeling to the car and feeling to the roads, which are similar to those we are now going to drive.
We were satisfied with Kaitsu with the work we got done in that short rally. First we took it the wrong way in setups but when we went back to the basic things we found really good setups for our car.
It's always difficult to say beforehand how the race will go. Only after we get to the area and start driving hoping that we find the rhythm immediately and get a hang of it without any difficulties in the beginning.
We would have to get to the finish line without bigger blunders but you never know because unfortunately I have rallied less than these other have and it's only through experience that I can do a good result all the time.
This is a special weekend for our Citroen-team. When you drive a French car in France you get a lot of support and fans.
The French people are rally-people just like the Finns are.
Sebastien Loeb has a chance to secure his umpteenth championship and it's sure that he will do his everything so that he can win and take the title at the same time in his home rally.
We go there to do our best. We have made totally simple blunders in the last two rallies. On tarmac my feeling is immediately better because it is afterall a more familiar surface to me. At least the training rally in Italy before Bulgaria helped so hopefully the same strategy hits home there too and we get a good rhythm on France's roads.
So it's Vive la France!
Source: KIMIRAIKKONEN
Courtesy: Nicole
