Kimi's Column: SECOND TIME'S THE CHARM

Kimi Rally de Portugal preview in Finnish

I was left with good feelings from Rally Sweden. It went better the second time than it went last year. It will be interesting now to see how it goes for us this weekend.

In Portugal, now that we are driving there for the second time also.

I remember the roads from last year. It's really a very challenging place. You have to drive precisely according to the note with your tongue right in the middle of your mouth because you have stones and stumps ahead of you and behind you. What is new is that the rally starts from Lissabon and there is also a completely new stage on the route.

This is our first rally on gravel with this car. I like the car. It's sort of more handy and it fits better in my hand.
As a gravel rally Portugal is one of the most trickiest when your have to twist and turn all the time. I think that only Jordan is a wee bit more worse than Portugal beause the roads in Jordan are so slippery all way long.

Last week we had one testing day in France. I got a good feeling of it. We fixed the setups a bit and got a good feeling of the car. In that sense it's cool to go to a race again.

The others got a bit of leverage because we didn't go to Mexico. They have now more experience of these new cars. Of course Portugal is a completely different place than Mexico. We are on Europe's side and the air isn't as thin as it is there in the mountains. We get to use all the powers and it's always cool to get everything out of a car.

The goals are the same as they were in Sweden: We try to drive as fast as we can and avoid bigger blunders. It went well in the first rally and if it goes well again then we should get a good result.

The learning continues. We have to drive precisely during the weekend and get the notes to hit in place.

Lets wait and see how it goes this time.

Source: KIMIRAIKKONEN.COM
Courtesy: Nicole

Räikkönen happy after pre- Portugal test

Kimi Räikkönen has voiced his satisfaction to team boss Benoit Nogier following a test in France yesterday (Wednesday)

The 2007 Formula One world champion covered approximately 150 kilometres at a venue in the east of the country as he continued his preparations for next week’s Vodafone Rally de Portugal.

Räikkönen is returning to the WRC with his ICE 1 Racing team after deciding not to include Rally Guanajuato Mexico on his schedule of events for this season.

“He was very happy with the feeling of the Citroën DS3 WRC,” said Nogier, the man responsible for overseeing Räikkönen’s transition to rallying. “One day was not a lot of time for Kimi because he had to combine discovering the car on gravel and working on the different choices and options for his set-up for the rally. But it was a success although he prefers the new car because it is more reactive than before and for him it’s better.”

Nogier said finding a suitable venue for the test had proved troublesome because of persistent rain in areas of France, which resulted in new Citroën signing Peter van Merksteijn Jr’s planned test on Tuesday being cancelled. However, the site used in eastern France for Raikkonen’s run had been largely free of rain for the past three weeks and was mainly dry during Wednesday’s test.

Of Räikkönen’s chances in Portugal, Nogier was similarly upbeat. “It’s always a difficult rally with tough stages but his performance in Sweden makes us confident,” said Nogier. “He knows the rally and knows what the problems are. He had a good feeling with the car after the test so he can be okay.”

Finn Räikkönen finished 10th on Rally de Portugal last season alongside co-driver Kaj Lindström.

Source: WRC

Alonso loses temper with Portuguese paparazzi

Fernando Alonso has landed himself in a controversy within the Spanish-language media.

After arriving in a private jet for a holiday on the small Portuguese island of Porto Santo, the Ferrari driver lost his temper with a group of paparazzi photographers as he walked through the airport.

A video shows the 29-year-old telling the group in Spanish: "The first photographer or camera I see in the next days, I will leave the next day and tell everyone that Porto Santo is a disaster.

"Ok? So please leave us alone," added Alonso, who gestured with a thumbs-down.

The footage was featured in the news coverage by several media, with some reporting that Alonso has been even more aggressive on occasion.

Alonso’s next official engagement is Ferrari’s traditional Wroom event in the Italian Dolomites.

Source: NextgenAuto RTP

Räikkönen's notes started to hit home in Portugal

Two thirds is behind Kimi Räikkönen's first WRC-season. Kimi has 8 WRC-rallies under his belt and 4 to come.

Kimi has scored WC-points four times and he is 10th in the WC-serie.

Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström finished the rallies every time except for Mexico. Two weeks ago in Germany Räikkönen got his first fastest SS-time on WRC-level.

Summary rally by rally

Experienced co-driver Kaj Lindström who has been beside Tapio Laukkanen and Tommi Mäkinen has worked the best way as a calm advisor for Räikkönen's new rally career.

Let's ask Lindström to shortly summarize this WRC-season with Räikkönen.

Sweden 14.2. (29th)

– It was Kimi's first WRC-rally in a WRC-car. It was tricky for him at the point where he had difficulties listening to the notes. A part of the mistakes simply happened because we weren't exactly on the map.

Mexico 7.3. (retirered)

– That rally went great until we went off the road. Maybe we braked too late but there were many other things that caused it. The car didn't have a rear spoiler for example.

Jordan 3.4. (8th)

– He had a little more patience to drive the right pace and collect experience. It went well.

Turkey 18.4. (5th)

It was a new rally for everybody and a great drive from Kimi. We also saw the difference when the rally is new for eveybody and everybody started from the same ground.

Portugal 30.5. (10th)

– We knew beforehand that Jordan and Portugal will be the most difficult rallies in the beginning of the season - as is Britain's rally too which ends the season. Portugal went well except for the tyre puncture. That's when we were stuck in a ditch for some time.

– All and all it was a mature performance and that's when listening to the note started improving. We are going forward all the time and after Portugal I couldn't say anymore that Kimi wouldn't listen to the notes properly. With that speed you have to start listening to the notes properly.

Bulgaria 11.7. (11th)

– It was a new tarmac rally and there we already had a pace to drive for better positions. We drove beforehand the Lanterna-rally in Italy and that benefitted Kimi without doubt when he got a nice amount of more self-confidence.

Jyväskylä 31.7. (25th)

– It was a reasonable performance although driving too fast to one point cost WC-points. It was good that we got to drive through all stages. If Kimi will continue with rally in the future, then it will benefit him that he has finished Jyväskylä's rally with this car and this race pace.

Germany 22.7. (7th)

– The dude drove well and had good days again even though he made a mistake on Sunday morning which cost the 6th position. In this rally the thing is to cut a lot and there's a lot of dirt on the road. When you drive there for the first time you don't know what the traction is because there is grass and all kinds of trash on the road.

A difficult start to be expected again

Räikkönen and Lindström won't promise anything beforehand from Japan.

– If the old signs are correct, then we can expect a difficult rally. It takes time before we find the right speed for gravel roads, Lindström estimates.

– But the next rally in France is on tarmac and it's new for everybody, I'm sure it will help Kimi again. And at least in rally Catalonia we will get on real good tarmac roads.

HEIKKI KULTA

Source: Turun Sanomat

Courtesy: Nicole

Kimi's co-driver: Ville Peltonen* wouldn't do well in figure skating either

Kimi Räikkönen and his co-driver Kaj Lindström knew that Rally Portugal would be a difficult race. That's what it also became since Räikkönen, who finished tenth, ended up losing over 11 and a half minutes to his team mate Sebastien Ogier who won the race.

-We knew that there are two difficult rallies on the first half of the season, Jordan and this one. We got a point but there were chances for better if it wasn't for the tyre puncture on Sunday. Even before the rally the only plan was to just finish the race and gather experience. In that sense it went as expected. We didn't have any bigger goals for this race anyway, says Lindström.

In Rally Turkey in mid April Räikkönen finished promisingly at fifth place. Lindström points out that Räikkönen benefitted from the fact that the race set in Istanbul was a new experience for all the teams and drivers. Portugal's special stages are demanding for an unexperienced driver anyway.

-There's slippery, slow and technical roads here and a lot is happening all the time. Listening to the pace notes and other things are emphasized even more in a race like this. More experience is needed, said Lindström.

At which point can we start expecting better results from Kimi?

-We have to remember how many rallies he's driven in his life. It's a bit like asking why Ville Peltonen doesn't win the world championship of figure skating during the first year. Kimi has very limited experience of rallying. Proper results cannot be expected this year. Kimi should be given the peace to get used to rally and if he decides to continue after this year, then we can start expecting those good positions, thinks Lindström.

Lindströn wasn't able to say whether the rally experiment is a several year project for the 2007 F1 world champion.

-It hasn't been discussed yet. At some point of the year he'll make a decision about continuing. Now we're only at the end of May and we're concentrating on driving rally, Lindström says.

Time to strike in Bulgaria?

The next WRC rally will be driven 9th -11th of July on Bulgarian asphalt roads. The race, which is in the WRC program for the first time, may be one of the best places for Räikkönen to show his speed.

-Bulgaria is again a new race for everybody and we go to an asphalt surface. One of the variables is then more familiar since Kimi has driven on asphalt all his live. There finding braking points and other things will be easier. It will be interesting to see how driving on asphalt will start going, Lindström says.

On the second weekend of June Räikkönen will try out asphalt roads in Lanterna Rally driven near Genova in Italy.

-It's just a practice race. The race is first and then we'll have our first asphalt test. We're just going there to see how a car like this feels on asphalt. We'll probably get ideas there about what to test and develop in the following week's asphalt test, Lindström tells.

*Ville Peltonen is a Finnish ice hockey player. Kaj's point is that if he suddenly started figure skating, we couldn't expect him to win anything during the first year.

Source: MTV3 – Lauri Ouvinen
Courtesy: Dracaena

AutoSprint: And Kimi gets points again

Fifth overall, so Kimi Raikkonen could celebrate in Turkey his second race finished in the points after Mexico.

The Finnish driver was satisfied at the end, both for the result and for the great experience made during the race.

The former Ferrari driver is going to take a break now: he won't race in New Zeland and we can see him again at the end of May, in Portugal.

Source: AutoSprint
Courtesy:_TaniaS_

Loeb, Hirvonen, Räikkönen and others to drive on streets of Porto

This year's Vodafone Rallye de Portugal will see the inclusion of The Porto Roadshow, with the most important cars and drivers entered in the rally participating in the event.

After being appointed the official promoter for the FIA World Rally Championship, North One Sport pledged to support organisers, teams and drivers running events promoting the WRC rallies. And this was an opportunity that the organisers of the Portuguese round of the 2010 championship did not miss.

The Porto Roadshow will be held on the Sunday prior to the rally - May 23rd – amid the stunning scenery of Aliados Avenue. The area surrounding City Hall will be transformed for the day, into a superspecial stage; 950 meters long and with jumps, chicanes, donut areas and drifting, it will set the scene for the following week’s rally perfectly.

The show will start with an autograph session at 2.30pm, then at 3.30pm, practice will start. From 5.00pm and with just one driver on the track, the event itself will begin, with a one-hour live transmission on Portugual’s RTP Channel 1.

Almost twenty drivers and cars will attend the event.

The confirmed names are:
- Sébastien Loeb (Citroen C4 WRC)
- Dani Sordo (Citroen C4 WRC)
- Kimi Räikkönen (Citroen C4 WRC)
- Petter Solberg (Citroen C4 WRC)
- Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus WRC)
- Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus WRC)
- Nasser Al-Attiyah (Skoda Fabia S2000)
- Bernardo Sousa (Ford Fiesta S2000)
- Xavi Pons (Ford Fiesta S2000)
- Vitor Pascoal (Peugeot 207 S2000)
- Armindo Araújo (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X)
- Nick Georgiou (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - Pirelli Star Driver)
- Peter Horsey (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - Pirelli Star Driver)
- Hayden Paddon (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - Pirelli Star Driver)
- Alex Raschi (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - Pirelli Star Driver)
- Ott Tänak (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X - Pirelli Star Driver)

Source: RallyBuzz