KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN AND THE CITROËN JUNIOR TEAM, PREVIEW WALES : The end of an era!

With the new World Rally Car regulations coming in for next year, the Citroën C4 WRC will end its career on the Rally Great Britain, the final round of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship

Dani Sordo/Diego Vallejo and Kimi Räikkönen/Kaj Lindström will represent the Citroën Junior Team, with the aim of sealing third place in the manufacturers’ championship.
Rally Great Britain is the 13th round of the year and one of the iconic events of the World Rally Championship.

It traditionally rounds off the season, although this year both the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ titles have already been decided. But the Citroën Junior Team is still aiming to secure third place in the manufacturers’ title race (which has already been won by the Citroën Total World Rally Team*) while both Dani Sordo and Kimi Räikkönen have the chance to improve their final position in the drivers’ rankings.

Dani Sordo heads into the final rally of the year lying fifth in the championship, having taken five podiums from the last seven events, and the Spaniard is hoping for a strong finish to the season. “This is a particularly difficult rally, but I’ve manage to set some good times there in the past,” he pointed out. “This year, I want to be right in the fight for victory.”

Sordo has ended up with two podiums from his last two participations in the Rally Great Britain. “The weather conditions will play a big part,” he added. “If the roads stay dry, this is going to be an extremely fast rally. If it rains though, the stages will rapidly turn into mud and it will become the most slippery event of the year. We need to get off to a good start, as I’m sure that the pace will be quick from the very beginning. Everyone wants to win the last rally of the year.”

Having scored 21 points, Kimi Räikkönen is currently 10th in the World Championship following the 10 rallies that he has taken part in. The Finn will be back on gravel in Wales: a surface on which he scored points in Jordan, Turkey and Portugal.

"We knew that our first learning year would be a bit like this,” pointed out Kimi. “Like any driver starting off in a completely new discipline that is as specialised as rallying, I’ve had my ups and downs. I imagine that Wales will be no different. We’re going to work hard during the recce. We need to make sure that we set off at a decent pace and then gradually reduce the gap to the frontrunners as the rally goes on. Our rivals will have more experience than us on these roads, although Kaj knows some of the stages. If that means that we can keep making the pace notes in the same way as before, it’s definitely a small bonus.”

The rally route has changed slightly compared to last year. A new superspecial stage (Cardiff Bay) will kick off the action on Thursday night. The first day is a repeat of 2009. But the second day returns to some older stages such as Radnor Forest, which was last used in 1999. On the final day, the Resolfen and Margam Park stages are also slightly modified.

Source: Red Bull Rallye

Räikkönen: French outing like Ferrari at Monza

Buoyed by his first rally win, Kimi Räikkönen is looking forward to testing his mettle in Citroen team-mate Sebastien Loeb's backyard on this weekend's Rallye de France

Kimi Räikkönen has admitted that he is looking forward to this weekend's Rallye de France, comparing the thought of piloting a full-bore Citroën C4 WRC around the hills of Alsace to racing for Ferrari at the Maranello's spiritual home in Monza.

Buoyed by his first rally win, on last weekend's Rallye Vosgien, the Finn reports that he is feeling more comfortable with the car and the demands of a WRC weekend, but admits that, despite having one of the best cars in the event, there are still a lot of unknowns ahead as the French event switches from its familiar home in Corsica to embrace the area beloved of multiple champion - and Citroën team-mate - Sebastien Loeb.

After showing great pace on the last all-new round of the World Rally Championship, in Bulgaria, the 2007 F1 world champion is hoping to demonstrate just what he is capable of on the surface that he is most familiar - or least unfamiliar - even if he understands that beating Loeb, who stands poised on the brink of an unprecedented seventh world drivers' title, is nigh-on impossible unless he can end the Frenchman's six-year unbeaten run on asphalt.

"It's not easy, that's for sure," Räikkönen conceded, as he approaches just his tenth WRC event in the C4, "But I'm hoping that we can have a good result in France. If we can show the same sort of pace like we did in Bulgaria, in the top five, then that would be really good.

"The problem is that it's always hard to predict a result when you don't know anything about what the route is going to be like, so we'll just concentrate very hard on the recce to end up with the best set of pace notes possible. Generally, we've improved in every area since the start of the season and I feel a lot more comfortable now, so we're hoping to continue our progress this weekend. France is obviously a really important event for Citroen, so I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun - a bit like driving for Ferrari at Monza!"

Co-driver Kaj Lindström, who has sat alongside Räikkönen since the Finn made his world rally debut in a Super 2000 car on the Rally Finland last year, is also looking forward to the weekend, although he's not expecting a French revolution.

"We're learning step by step, and I think sometimes people forget that this is only Kimi's first year in rallying and that nobody has ever walked straight into the very top level to compete against the very best with no experience before," he reasoned, "Kimi's been doing very well, and I'm sure that he can improve again in France. Asphalt is obviously a surface that he knows a bit better and, between us, we'll be working on putting together a good set of pace notes during the recce so that he can make the most of his talent on the stages."

Räikkönen may need to make the most of this weekend's outing, however, as, with his future at Citroen uncertain beyond the end of the season, he may not find himself able to use the Monza comparison again. The Finn has been linked to a possible switch to either the new Prodrive-run Mini team, or the Monster Ford squad, for 2011, but has also made enquiries about a possible return to F1 with Renault

Source: Crash.net
Courtesy: sleenster