Kimi Raikkonen in the WRC

How did the 2007 F1 World Champion fare with his new set of wheels

Throughout Kimi Raikkonen's Grand Prix career he displayed incredible raw speed and at times was the fastest man in Formula One. Unfortunately, Kimi's amazing pace came with a tendency to make mistakes and he committed a long list of unforced errors. He was stupendously quick on occasion but did fall off the road a lot and driving lapses may have cost Raikkonen world titles in 2003, 2005 & 2008.

Now that Kimi has moved full-time into the World Rally Championship, those same traits appear to have followed him. Whenever he gets behind the wheel of a rally car he is instantly quick but all too often it ends in tears.

Raikkonen's first WRC event was in last year's Rally Finland. He was never going to challenge for outright honours in his privately entered FIAT Abarth, but Kimi showed impressive speed and was on track for a podium in his class. His experienced co-driver,  said "his handling and driving skills, like the lines he takes and so on, are at a very high level - outstanding, actually."

However, the enduring image of Raikkonen's WRC debut was his white FIAT barrel rolling through the trees at high speed.

Kimi took part in two other minor events with the FIAT and one of those also ended in an accident.

Raikkonen is now more serious about his rally career and is no longer taking part just for the fun of it. He has signed with Citroen Junior Team and will drive a title winning C4 in the 2010 WRC season. Citroen have won five of the last seven Manufacturers Championships and now Raikkonen is racing with their version of Toro Rosso. Although he isn't expected to beat the factory outfit it is a great place for him to learn his craft and score points.

Raikkonen's first outing in a Citroen this year was two weeks ago in the Arctic Rally as a practice event. Kimi drove well and was within one second per kilometre of the winner's time, but he lost half an hour after crashing on the first day.

The raw speed is there, but Raikkonen just needs to find some consistency.

Kimi's first championship WRC event with Citroen was this weekend in the Rally Sweden. It has so far been the only genuine measure of Raikkonen's talent in a major event with a serious team.

The Rally Sweden comprised of 21 stages that spread over three and a half days. Kimi fared well on the opening day and moved into tenth overall after the sixth stage. However, that was as high as Kimi got. In the seventh stage he crashed into a snow bank and lost 25 minutes whilst he dug himself out. It was a similar incident to the one that crippled him in the Arctic Rally practice event.

Despite the setback, Raikkonen still set some pretty impressive stage times later in the weekend. He was sixth fastest of all on stage 15, and finished 14 other stages in eleventh place or higher.

Raikkonen spun on the 10th and 18th stages, and although he did not sustain any damage in those incidents he did lose more time. After all of his trials and tribulations, including a minor crash in the recce, he came home 30th overall. Kimi was well out of the points but gained plenty of valuable experience.

It was the sort of drive you'd expect from a rookie. He was fast but error prone, and the laconic Fin was philosophical.

"We knew this was going to be a very difficult rally. We improved a bit all the time and that was our goal. Okay, I'm a bit disappointed to lose the time in the snow but that's a part of rallying."

If Kimi spends a few years building his skill and experience in a WRC car he might find himself promoted to the factory Citroen team. From there he can start fighting for regular wins, and if he strings enough of them together he could even claim a World Championship.

It's not going to be easy but the first steps are often the hardest.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

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Last Comment Posted »

• just wanna share this video with kimi shovlin´some snow.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrYuWTlHvvw
  by ian doroteo
  [ click here to read in full ]