Barcelona: Vettel ups his pace on Day Two

Sebastian Vettel made it two from two as Red Bull edged their rivals around the Circuit de Catalunya

After a cold start to the morning with temperatures reaching just 5'C, the track heated up and so did the action.

Vettel, who topped the timesheets on Friday with a 1:24.374, went a full second quicker on Saturday, crossing the line with a 1:23.315.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing for the reigning World Champ, who had to abandon his race simulation in the afternoon after his Red Bull mechanics noted a problem with his RB7.

Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari was a surprise in second place, finishing two-tenths behind Vettel while Fernando Alonso had to settle for third place in his late charge.

The Spaniard was another to run into problems on Saturday, bringing out the day's first red flag just half an hour in the session when he stopped at Turn Four.

Ferrari said on Twitter: "Not a good start of the second day of the session. Fernando stopped on track due to an electric problem. Anyway, the issue has been solved. Tyres and set-up changes are the main objectives of today's programme."

However, the Spaniard's running was again hampered in the afternoon as his F150th Italian countered mechanical problems, keeping Alonso down to 90 laps.

In sharp contrast, Rubens Barrichello and Williams finally had a trouble-free day with their FW33 and the Brazilian finished in fourth place, ahead of Lotus Renault driver Nick Heidfeld.

The German, who is filling in for the injured Robert Kubica, split the duties with Vitaly Petrov and proved to be over two seconds quicker than his Russian team-mate.

Kamui Kobayashi was sixth for Sauber, finishing ahead of Nico Rosberg. The latter will be delighted to have completed a massive 131 laps after seeming to suffer the bulk of Mercedes GP reliability issues.

"We completed a great deal of mileage and that was important for me to understand more about the tyre behaviour," said Rosberg.

"There is a lot for the drivers to learn about how the Pirelli tyres are performing, and about how to make them last over the long runs; it's going to be a key factor this year in the races and I think we made good progress on that front today.

"The reliability was ok but everybody in the team knows we need to keep pushing to make sure we are trouble-free for the start of the season."

It was another quiet day for McLaren with a hydraulic problem forcing Jenson Button to miss most of the morning session. He was 1.608s adrift of Vettel's P1 time.

Paul di Resta and Heikki Kovalainen, who had problem with his T128 when its "collector filter was blocked" completed the top ten.

Times
01. Vettel Red Bull 1:23.315 104 laps
02. Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:23.519 + 0.204 97 laps
03. Alonso Ferrari 1:23.978 + 0.663 90 laps
04. Barrichello Williams 1:24.008 + 0.693 118 laps
05. Heidfeld Lotus Renault 1:24.242 + 0.927 41 laps
06. Kobayashi Sauber 1:24.243 + 0.928 125 laps
07. Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.730 + 1.415 131 laps
08. Button McLaren 1:24.923 + 1.608 54 laps
09. Di Resta Force India 1:25.194 + 1.879 80 laps
10. Kovalainen Team Lotus 1:26.421 + 3.106 58 laps
11. Petrov Lotus Renault 1:26.884 + 3.569 61 laps
12. Liuzzi HRT 1:27.044 + 3.729 70 laps
13. Glock Virgin 1:27.242 + 3.927 66 laps
14. Teixeira Team Lotus 1:31.584 + 8.269 26 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Video: Kimi Räikkönen Interview after Day 2 at Rally Sweden 2011

Source: Citroënwrt

Jerez: Schumi tops the charts

Michael Schumacher set the pace at Jerez on Friday where once again the times set during the morning session proved to be the best

The seven-time World Champion clocked a 1:20.352 on a run that was more than ten laps. However, as the day progressed, he struggled to match his best and in fact found himself outside the top half in terms of pace over longer distances.

Thursday's pace-setter Felipe Massa dropped to second place, 0.061s behind his former Ferrari team-mate. Massa had a busy day, finishing with the most laps completed and an average of 1:27s per lap during his long-distance runs.

Jenson Button, who had his first taste of McLaren's MP4-26, was third quickest, although the Brit spent a large part of the morning - which was when the faster times were set - in the pits as McLaren conducted system checks.

Jaime Alguersuari, who was fourth quickest on Friday, just 0.862s off the pace, was the first to run into trouble on Day Two as the Toro Rosso driver spun off the track, bringing out the red flags.

His car was taken back to the pits, however, it wasn't long before he was back in the action, working on a programme that featured three key elements; tyre evaluation, weight distribution and car set-up work.

The Spaniard said: "In performance terms, it is still a bit too early to start drawing conclusions, especially as the lap times here vary a lot from the morning to the afternoon, but I am reasonably confident that this side of the car's progress is on the right track."

Mark Webber was fifth for Red Bull Racing, finishing ahead of Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez. However, the latter's day was curtailed when he crashed between Turns Seven and Eight during the afternoon session.

Timo Glock was next in line, three-tenths up on Renault's Vitaly Petrov, who was another to bring out the red flags when he spun off track in the morning.

The day's final flag belonged to Pastor Maldonado as the Williams driver became the second rookie to crash. He lost control at Turn Four, damaging the front and rear of his FW32 as he hit the wall.

Jarno Trulli completed the timesheets after failing to make an appearance in the afternoon due to an unspecified mechanical problem.

Times
01. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:20.352 112 laps
02. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.413 + 0.061 116 laps
03. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.009 + 0.657 69 laps
04. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:21.214 + 0.862 72 laps
05. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:21.613 + 1.261 113 laps
06. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:21.780 + 1.428 73 laps
07. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:21.857 + 1.505 56 laps
08. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:22.208 + 1.856 57 laps
09. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:22.493 + 2.141 65 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:22.591 + 2.239 38 laps
11. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:23.216 + 2.864 40 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Alonso Leads The Way Again In Valencia

Fernando Alonso staved off the challenger of Sebastian Vettel to finish the morning session of day two of pre-season testing with the fastest time

Having started strongly on Tuesday, Alonso finished behind Vettel at the close of day one, but the Spaniard was again out in front at the second time of asking.

Heikki Kovalainen got day two going as he put the T128 through its paces for the first time in the form of an instillation lap. The initial feedback from the Lotus garage was one positive, with technical director Mike Gascoyne reporting that both team and driver were happy with its first run.

Having made adjustments to the car during the morning, the Norfolk-based outfit will be hoping to get some mileage on the car in the afternoon.

It wasn't long before the red flag made its first appearance of the day as Ruben Barrichello's Williams came to a halt out on track. The stoppage was a result of an electrical problem which caused a loss of power and it did not prevent the Brazilian from getting further laps under his belt later in the session.

Driving Force India's 2010 model, Paul di Resta notched up a time of 1:15.314, the fastest in the early running, before promptly going off at turn two and bringing out the red flag once again. The Scot's time was enough to end the session third, an impressive performance from the newcomer.

Lewis Hamilton made his first appearance in the old MP-25, producing a string of mid-range laps the best of which was a 1:14.701.

Having topped the time sheets on day one, Vettel again performed strongly on day two, producing a lap of 1:13.614, which remained the number to beat for the majority of the session.

However, it was Alonso who posted the fastest time of Wednesday's opening session with a 1:13.307. The Spaniard was there are thereabouts throughout the session before knocking Vettel off the top of the leaderboard with a 1:13.469 before improving on it just before the break.

Alonso will at least be glad not to have endured the drama that followed his countryman, Jaime Alguersuari.

The youngster first spun into the gravel before only narrowly avoiding a collision with Sauber's Sergio Perez as the former exited the pit lane. In between all the drama, Alguersuari managed to put in more laps than any other driver and to nip round in a time of 1:16.474, the seventh fastest of the day.

Aside from a near miss with Alguersuari, Perez enjoyed an uneventful start to life in F1, finishing ahead of TImo Glock's Virgin (1:17.228), Barrichello's Williams (1:17.344) and Narain Karthikeyan's Hispania (1:17.823) with a 1:17.019.

Renault and Mercedes may have been the two teams fighting it out behind the frontrunners last season, but the two teams are having vastly different fortunes thus far in 2011.

Kubica improved on yesterday's performance from Vitaly Petrov by some distance, notching up a 1:14.412, the fourth fastest time of the session, and the third quickest by a team using a 2011 model.

Conversely, Merc GP's struggles continued on Wednesday. Having been hindered by a hydraulics problem on day one, Rosberg brought out his second red flag in two days when he came to a standstill at turn eleven. The only silver lining for the team will be that when Rosberg was running he managed to go over a second quicker than the team's fastest lap yesterday, set by Michael Schumacher.

Unofficial Times:
01. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:13.469 56 laps
02. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:13.614 + 0.145 43 laps
03. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:13.844 + 0.375 43 laps
04. Robert Kubica Renault 1:14.412 + 0.943 44 laps
05. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:14.701 + 1.232 35 laps
06. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.383 + 1.914 36 laps
07. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.474 + 3.005 64 laps
08. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.019 + 3.550 39 laps
09. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:17.288 + 3.819 32 laps
10. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:17.344 + 3.875 48 laps
11. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania-Cosworth 1:17.823 + 4.354 50 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Kimi Räikkönen Day 2 at Wales Rally GB 2010

Source: Anelise30

RED BULL ON STAGE - KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN IN WALES, LEG 2

Kimi Räikkönen may have won 18 Grands Prix and a Formula One World Championship, but one thing that the Red Bull driver hasn't done yet is sell 100 million records worldwide. The route during day two of the Rally Great Britain ran close to Pontypridd, the hometown of legendary Welsh crooner Tom Jones

It's true that Kimi knows a lot of famous people. He's never been a close personal friend of Elvis Presley's though, and neither has he ever lived in a house formerly owned by Dean Martin. Tom Jones has done all these things, being the 24th most successful artist in the world - ahead of Prince, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan and Tina Turner.

So Kimi is definitely resigned to not being the biggest superstar in Wales this weekend. Instead, his goal is firmly to get to the finish of one of the most tricky and specialised events of the year. From the very beginning, the Iceman has been in the top 10, and today he did another solid job to make up two more places and end the second day in eighth.

Rally Great Britain is made up of gravel stages that are extremely inconsistent, with the grip alternating between slippery and non-existent. To make matters even more complicated, there were several sections of asphalt on today's stages, which soon turned into a skating rink.

Sensibly the Red Bull driver decided to take it easy and concentrate on scoring points at the end of the rally tomorrow, having steered clear of risks all day.

"I came into this rally knowing that it was going to be difficult, but I never actually thought that it would be this difficult," said Kimi. "I suppose today I had a slightly better idea of what to expect so it was less surprising but still just as tricky as yesterday. When we are driving on asphalt with gravel tyres there's really no grip at all. But in other places, there is more grip than you think. To do well here you need a lot of experience, which is why we are just driving at our own pace and not taking any risks. I'm enjoying myself though and learning more all the time. The stages are really nice but hard to predict – a bit like the weather here!"

Kimi's co-driver Kaj Lindstrom knows all about the weather in Wales, having finished on the podium of the Rally Great Britain in the past. There won't be a podium this time, but Kaj was still impressed. "Considering his level of experience, which is zero here, Kimi approached the stages in a very sensible way. We said before the start that we wanted to get to the end of the event in the points and so far we are on track. Of course we can't take anything for granted because tomorrow's stages are probably even more difficult than today's. But so far, we're on the right road and that is the main thing."

Source: RedBull Rallye

RALLYE DE FRANCE - KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN AND LEG 2

After more than 30 years in Corsica, the Rallye de France is being run in Alsace but Kimi Räikkönen's Citroen colleague Sebastien Loeb is not the only famous Alsatian out there

This tiny French province, tucked into a corner of Germany and Kimi's adopted home of Switzerland, has also produced football manager Arsene Wenger as well as other sporting stars such as Michel Platini. Not to mention generations of Alsatian dogs, also known as German Shepherds.

Kimi struggled with grip on the first day of the rally, largely due to the cars in front of him sprinkling so much dirt onto the road that the stages looked like a mud-wrestling arena. This made the amount of grip as predictable as a chimpanzee with a machine gun, but Kimi still kept his nerve to skate to seventh overall.

The same muddy problem existed on day two, which featured even more corner-cutting on the tight and twisty vineyard stages. These were not dissimilar to those on the Rally Germany, where Kimi set his first World Rally Championship fastest stage time in August.

'The Iceman' was making solid progress on the damp roads until he got caught out by a slippery corner halfway through the second stage of the day, taken at about 20kph. The car became beached in a place where there were not many spectators and he lost more than half an hour trying to get back on the road. Kimi continued right up to the penultimate stage today before definitively ending his day's work when the car got stuck again on the outside of a corner. The Red Bull driver will not return under the SupeRally regulations tomorrow, as he has decided not to risk damaging his Citroën C4 further prior to next rally in Spain later this month.

"It was just a stupid thing," said Kimi. "We've not had any problems during the fast corners on the rally, so it's really silly that we suffered in the slow ones! There was just so much mud and so little grip today that it wasn't like a normal asphalt rally. The car did not sustain any damage during either of our two incidents, but obviously when you are running so far down the order you don't have exactly the same motivation and that makes things quite difficult. We still learned a lot though and it has been really useful to have had this experience. I don't think we're going to learn much more tomorrow under these conditions, so the sensible decision is to save the car for the Catalunya Rally, which I'm really looking forward to."

His co-driver Kaj Lindstrom added: "Some you win, some you lose and today was just a bit unlucky for us. In rallying, just the smallest things can put you out and finding the limit is all part of the learning process, particularly as this is only Kimi's third World Championship rally on asphalt with this car. He's put in some really promising performances under difficult circumstances, including a sixth-fastest time today. Now we're going to concentrate on being as well-prepared as possible for the next round in Spain."

The final day of the Rallye de France tomorrow takes competitors through Sebastien Loeb's hometown of Haguenau at what seems set to be a Citroen party. It's just as well that there is plenty of Red Bull in the fridge...

Source: RedBullRallye

RED BULL ON STAGE - RALLY JAPAN, DAY 2.

Japan seems to love motorsport but hate horsepower. While Red Bull's Kimi Raikkonen and the other World Rally Championship competitors power down the stages in Hokkaido, many of the spectators watching them will drive home in cars that have about a sixth of the horsepower of Kimi's Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC

The Japanese 'kei car' regulations are designed to encourage mini cars to ease space on crowded roads by offering important tax advantages. It's no surprise that they have become incredibly popular, with nearly two million of them sold last year. At a maximum of 3.4 metres long, they are about a metre shorter than Kimi's rally car - but many of them also have four-wheel drive and turbochargers at their disposal, just like Kimi.

Mini cars have to make use of every bit of technology available to get the most out of their permitted 660cc engines. Luckily, Kimi had considerably more power at his disposal as he tackled the eight demanding stages that made up the second day of Rally Japan: only the ninth World Championship event of his brief career to date in the C4 WRC.

Having started the day in a point-scoring 10th place, Kimi made the most of the experience he had gained over the previous day to move up to eighth. For the flying Finn, it is all about gaining knowledge of some of the trickiest stages that he will face all year. Showing his consistency he set eighth-quickest time on all the stages today apart from one, where he was classified sixth.

"I'm pleased with the way that things have gone today, especially because the guys in front of me have really been pushing hard, if you look at the gaps at the top," said Kimi, the winner of the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix. "We've made no mistakes today and we've kept a consistent pace, which is the only way we are going to learn. My target before this rally was just to get to the finish and take away as much knowledge as I can, and so far I would say that we are on course to achieve this goal. The car has been really good today too: we were able just to concentrate on our driving and we learned a lot. Of course there is still some way to go, but if we can finish in this position tomorrow I will be quite happy."

Co-driver Kaj Lindstrom, who has been with Kimi ever since the former Grand Prix champion made his rally debut last year, added: "Today was actually much better than yesterday because we definitely benefited from the experience of driving on these roads after not being on gravel for more than a month. The gaps to the people in front of us have come down consistently, and that's what we're going to keep working on."

Kimi has steered clear of mistakes all day but tomorrow it will be even more important for him to have a clean run over the eight stages that remain, as there is no service halt in between them. It's a tough task that needs drivers to stay cool - so it's just as well that Kimi is the Iceman...

Source: RedBullrallye

CITROËN JUNIOR TEAM, RALLY JAPAN 2010 – DAY 2

Dani Sordo and Diego Vallejo enjoyed an excellent second day over the Hokkaido stages in Japan. Thanks to two fastest stage times, the Citroën Junior Team’s Spanish crew got closer to the lead.They will start the final sprint tomorrow just 15 seconds from the leader.
Increasing their pace from the first day, Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström gained two places to climb to eighth overall.

Dani Sordo and Kimi Räikkönen checked out of parc fermé this morning occupying fifth and 10th places respectively. On the first stage of the day, Dani Sordo showed himself to be instantly comfortable with a second-fastest time.

He continued his progress by setting third-fastest time on the 33.76-kilometre
Kamuycep 1 stage (SS12) and then he went fastest of all on Kina 1 (SS13). In just one loop of stages, Dani had gained 22.3 seconds to close to within less than 15 seconds of the leader.

“The car feels very competitive this morning,” commented Dani. “The engineers have done a really good job to make our Citroën C4 WRC suit the conditions. We’re in the thick of the frontrunners, and it’s great fun to be fighting at the top of the timesheets!”

Kimi Räikkönen benefited from Matthew Wilson’s retirement in the morning to make up a place in the overall classification. Then the Finn grew in confidence to overhaul Federico Villagra. By the end of SS12, he was up to eighth. “I’ve had a good feeling with the car since yesterday’s lunchtime service, so we’re not making any more adjustments to the set-up,” said Kimi. “Now our aim is to keep on going like this. We have to keep trying to improve our times all the way to the end.”

In the afternoon, Dani Sordo was able to stay with the pace of the leaders. The Spaniard had planned to change the set-up of his car in order to optimise its performance on stages that now featured deep ruts after the first passage in the morning. With the help of his engineers, Sordo managed to find settings that allowed him to post another fastest stage time on the 33-kilometre Kamuycep 2 test. He added a third fastest time to his collection on Kina 2.

Heading into the final day, Dani Sordo now occupies a promising fourth place, just 15 seconds off the rally leader. “I think I lost a bit too much time on the first stage this afternoon,” said Dani. “As for everything else, the rest of the day went extremely well. We made a lot of progress and we’re in a good position for tomorrow now. The only thing we can do is push!”

Kimi Räikkönen reinforced his position by putting together a string of eighth-fastest stage times, keeping consistently with 1.8 seconds per kilometre of the leader. “As always, the second run through the stages was easier for me,” he concluded. “Experience counts for a lot on these roads. I’m very pleased with my driving. Now we need to continue like this!”

Team Manager Benoit Nogier concluded:
“Dani is in a very good position. It’s a big pleasure for us to see him so close to the leader, having set a fastest time on the longest stage of the rally. He definitely showed impressive consistency. We’re in the midst of a very exciting rally now, with five or six drivers swapping mere seconds on the stages, including Dani. Now we’re hoping that he drives as quickly as possible again tomorrow. We need to make sure that we have nothing to regret by the afternoon.

"Kimi has driven one of his best days on gravel of the entire season. That’s another source of big satisfaction for us. The target is to continue like this, with the same consistent performance from both our drivers and our C4 WRCs!”

Source: RedBullRallye

TANK YOU, KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN

Red Bull Rallye Deutschland day two report

Kimi Räikkönen tanks through the stages. Not a gun in sight.

The word 'Panzerplatte' in German literally means 'armour plating', which is appropriate enough as this epic 48-kilometre stage used twice today was where the German army used to test their tanks.

A Panzer Tank was not a machine to be messed with. More than 8,800 of them were produced: many of them put through their paces in the Baumholder military complex, which hosted day two of the Rallye Deutschland. Interestingly, the Panzer Tank had more or less identical horsepower to Kimi Raikkonen's Citroen C4 World Rally Car: around 300bhp. However, there is a slight weight difference: Kimi's car weighs just over 1230 kilograms whereas the Panzer Tank weighs just over 25,000 kilograms.

This translates into something of a performance gap. On the Panzerplatte stage, Kimi's rally car reached speeds in the region of 200 kph. The Panzer Tank peaked at 39 kph. It also took half a minute to get there, as opposed to the handful of seconds that power Kimi's weapon to its top speed.

The only real advantage that the Panzer Tank has is a very large gun, but even without heavy weaponry Kimi had a real blast in Baumholder.

The 2007 Formula One World Champion once more steered clear of major mistakes all day and so he enters the closing stages of the Rallye Deutschland tomorrow in sixth overall, on only his second-ever asphalt World Championship rally. Today's action was probably the hardest of the entire rally, but 'The Iceman' still set times that were mostly in the top eight all day, continuing his great progress with a sixth-fastest time on the final run through Panzerplatte.

"It's been really good today: we've just concentrated on learning and made no big mistakes so that we can take the maximum amount of experience away from this event," said Kimi, backed by Red Bull on this year's World Rally Championship. "That's what I need most really. In the morning the car was too soft, also because we had a problem with the anti-roll bar, but in the afternoon it felt really good and we were able to increase our speed without taking any extra risks, which was the important thing. I felt that we really learned a lot today, so I'm pleased. If we can continue like this tomorrow and score some points, then we will have achieved our objectives on this rally. Maybe tomorrow the roads will be a little easier, but once more they will be nothing like the stages we had today. Each day we are finding out something new, but this is why we are here."

Co-driver Kaj Lindstrom is a master strategist, and he has set the objective of maintaining sixth place tomorrow. It's by no means an easy task, as the next man is less than 20 seconds down the road. But 'Kajto' - as he is known to his many friends - thinks that they can do it.

"It's going to be a nice challenge for us, whatever happens," he said. "But our priority is obviously for us to finish the rally; especially now that we have had such a good run so far. The pace notes today have been more or less perfect: you can feel the improvement all the time and that's very encouraging. We're both feeling quite confident heading into tomorrow: the speed and consistency is really coming now, and you can see that in the stage times."

Source: RallyBuzz

CITROËN JUNIORS AT ADAC RALLYE DEUTSCHLAND - DAY 2

Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastien Ogier are making progress in Germany

By getting the better of his key rival, Sébastien Ogier is currently third after the second day ofRallye Deutschland, behind the two factory Citroën C4 WRCs of Sébastien Loeb et Dani Sordo.Kimi Räikkönen is also making progress in the overall classification by claiming sixth place ahead of the third and final day.

The long second day of the Rallye Deutschland got underway at 0630 when the first crews made their way out of parc fermé in Trier. Both the Citroën Junior Team drivers had one firm objective in mind: to attack in order to make up places in the overall classification.Sébastien Ogier faced a battle with Jari-Matti Latvala for the final podium place and the Frenchman claimed the advantage after the first run over Arena Panzerplatte: at 48 kilometres the longest stage in the World Rally Championship.

“We still need to try and make more progress,” said Ogier. “I sense that it’s hard to make up time, even though my feeling with the car is good. These kilometres are vital for our learning curve. We only have a small gap over Jari-Matti, so we can’t relax for a second.

”In the afternoon, with the temperature peaking at 31°C in the stages, Sébastien Ogier pulled out more of a gap to consolidate his third place. “We went for a slightly more aggressive pace to build up a bit of a margin over Jari-Matti,” he reported. “Now we need to keep on driving well to be sure of staying on the podium. Our advantage is only 16 seconds.”

”In St. Wendeler Land (ES8), Kimi Räikkönen overhauled Matthew Wilson to climb up to seventh. But a straight-on in the following stage meant that his good work was undone. “In SS9 I just braked a bit too late and went straight on,” recounted the Finn. “A few kilometres from the end we had a problem with the rear anti-roll bar. As we only had a remote service before Panzerplatte, we had to drive the long stage with the problem. I didn’t take any risks, but we didn’t lose much time either.”

Thanks to his experience from the morning, Kimi Räikkönen was able to get closer to the top times in the second loop, practically halving his time difference to the frontrunners. “I’m quite pleased with our day,” he said. “We were much closer to the pace than we were yesterday.

With some other drivers having retired, we are now sixth. So our aim is to hang onto this position until the end.” Team manager Benoit Nogier concluded: “Sébastien Ogier has had exactly the sort of day that we could have hoped from him. He steadily gained ground on Jari-Matti, who was still setting good times.

We worked hard during the midday service halt to help Sébastien, by refining the car set-up to suit him more. In the afternoon he made full use of this to establish himself in third behind the two factory Citroëns, which are really on top of their game here. Kimi Räikkönen had very much the same approach in his battle with Matthew Wilson. He came off best to claim sixth place this evening.

This is an excellent position for him to be in on his first visit to Germany. This was the longest day of rallying of the year, thanks to a gruelling 187.58 competitive kilometres, and our C4s and their drivers faced up to the challenge well.”

Source: Red Bull Rallye

RÄIKKÖNEN CONTINUES THE LEARNING CURVE IN PORTUGAL

Red Bull Rally de Portugal day two report

It takes up to 50 years for a vintage Port wine to mature to its full complexity, and the greatest Port vintage of this century is reckoned by experts to date from 1927, with several cases still in existence.

The moral of the story? It takes time to get the best out of what Portugal has to offer. The Port-maker's art cannot be learned overnight and neither can the stages of Rally Portugal.

Red Bull driver Kimi Raikkonen has got to the end of a tough second day in ninth place, after having to cope with some of the toughest roads he has seen so far on his debut year of the World Rally Championship.

With the Rally de Portugal forming part of the series for the past three seasons, Kimi's rivals have effectively got a three-year head start on the iceman: who is competing on only his seventh WRC rally.

Despite this huge handicap, he worked hard on his pace notes, steered clear of trouble, and brought his Red Bull-liveried Citroen safely back to the service park near Faro.
While the car was serviced Kimi ate his dinner - but there will be no vintage Port to enjoy with it until the rally finishes tomorrow.

"It's been a really tough day," said the Finn. "It's not easy at all to get used to these stages, particularly after a month out of the car. Every single gravel rally we have done so far has been very different, so as soon as you get used to one surface, you are suddenly presented with something else totally different. That's what makes rallying so interesting but of course when you are starting out it's a hard sport to learn. When you are racing, one circuit is quite like another. But rally is an even bigger challenge. I've had a lot of fun and we are on course for our target to finish in the points. The stages today were definitely tougher than the ones yesterday, and it's going to be another hard day tomorrow as well. But these experiences really help us to learn, so it's good."

Kimi's co-driver Kaj Lindstrom has also been pleased with the progress that the duo have made, particularly when it comes to working on the pace notes. "These stages have been quite complicated in terms of pace notes, but our system is really beginning to work well now," he said. "For Kimi, this has been a big thing to get used to and I'm very impressed by the way that he is taking everything on board. Nothing seems to bother him: he is learning all the time and on every rally we make more progress."

A final fascinating fact about Port, which is traditionally made in Oporto: the venue for the pre-rally road show last Sunday. It is the third-oldest defined and protected wine region in the world, having been designated as an appellation in 1756. The oldest is Chianti in Italy (1716) followed by Tokaj in Hungary (1730).

Source: RallyBuzz

Rally Turkey: Citroen Jr leg 2 summary

Kimi Raikkonen makes up places in Turkey

Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia led the overall classification right up until SS15, when they lost three minutes this afternoon with a puncture. They will start the final day in fifth place, just in front of their Citroen Junior Team team mates. Kimi Raikkonen and Kaj Lindstrom, who are currently sixth, made up two places today.

Kimi Raikkonen and Kaj Lindstrom started the day in eighth place and used the first loop of stages to move up the leaderboard. By the end of SS10, the former F1 World Champion was already sixth overall."

"The Citroen C4 WRC always feels easy to drive," said the Finn. "On the asphalt I was maybe a little too careful until I realised how much grip was available. I'm pleased with our pace: it was a good day without the slightest problem. The only thing was that I stalled twice in the same place on each of the loops of stages. We improved our pace in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be a new day where we will try to keep our position to the end."

Benoit Nogier, the Citroen Junior Team Manager, said: "Sebastien was driving what was virtually a perfect rally. It's disappointing that he was unable to keep fighting for victory all the way to the end, but the rally is far from over. Sebastien and Julien are fifth, which would still be a good result. This takes nothing away from the top performance they have been putting in since yesterday morning. Kimi is also making very good progress. He has managed to break away from the drivers he was fighting with at the start of this event. It's all very encouraging."

Source: Citroën

Kimi Räikkönen After Day 2 in Rally of Turkey 2010

Source: Citroën WRC

Valencia, day 2 - Massa stays quickest in Spain

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took the top honours for a second consecutive day, as this week’s test at Valencia continued on Tuesday. Massa’s fastest time of 1m 11.722s in the Italian team’s new F10 was over three tenths of a second quicker than the best effort of Kamui Kobayashi, who made his debut for BMW Sauber at the Spanish track.

Exactly two-tenths down on Kobayashi was Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren MP4-25. Hamilton completed 108 laps during the course of the day, as he sampled his 2010 car for the first time. Robert Kubica set the fourth-fastest time for Renault, ahead of Nico Rosberg for Mercedes GP. Both Kubica and Rosberg covered 119 laps.

Sixth quickest was Rubens Barrichello for Williams, while Sebastien Buemi was the day’s final runner in seventh for Toro Rosso. After the gearbox problems that blighted his debut in the STR5 on Monday, Buemi was able to complete 107 laps.

Unofficial Tuesday test times from Valencia:
1. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:11.722, 124 Laps
2. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:12.056, 96 Laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:12.256, 108 Laps
4. Robert Kubica, Renault, 1:12.426, 119 Laps
5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:12.899, 119 Laps
6. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:13.377, 102 Laps
7. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:13.823, 107 Laps

Source: Formula1.com

Photos from Valencia - Day 2