Kimi Raikkonen’s Rally Germany review

Kimi Raikkonens Rally Germany review

Rally Germany - Kimi Raikkonen / Kaj Lindstrom. Photo: Willy Weyens - Rallyworld

Kimi Raikkonen - Rally Germany blog:

Fastest stage time and some points

For sure, it’s a nice thing in this sport that every single rally is so different.

Obviously I didn’t have a clue what to expect from Rally Germany. At the end of the day it did not have that much to do with the real tarmac rallies. The roads were very dirty and some parts we had on gravel, too.

The main thing for us was to finish the rally. We did that, we got the all important miles with at race speed plus we got some more points to add to our total.

Once again I learnt more about rally driving. We made a couple of mistakes and you cannot change that afterwards. I have to learn everything by myself and while making a mistake you always learn the most.

Before the event many people asked me how much easier it is for me to do a rally on asphalt after racing in circuits for such a long time. Well, I can tell you, it’s not that huge of an advantage for me in rallies on tarmac. In Germany it felt great to go fast there. The roads were narrow and you have keep your focussed at all times.

It was not easy. No question about that. Again, I had to find the right rhythm in the beginning.

This is a very challenging rally and good for us, it’s over and done with. Well, I made two mistakes on Sunday morning and because of that, Wilson managed to pass us and got sixth place. I had a bad feeling for some time for loosing some points, but all in all, it’s important to keep on going with patience and remember that making mistakes belongs to the process of learning rallies.

The pace notes worked quite well. There was no problem with that side and it felt nice.

This was my third tarmac rally with this Red Bull Citroen C4 car and my second WRC asphalt rally. I’m satisfied with gaining a lot of more experience from the asphalt rally driving. I’m also happy for gaining my first ever fastest stage time in WRC rallies. I don’t know how much the top guys slowed it down in the last stage, but for a racing driver, the fastest time is always the fastest time.

Now we have a short break. The next rally in the calendar is Japan and we don’t have any testing before that. Obviously Japan will be very difficult for me as a rookie. I have heard that those stages are quite tricky.

But we keep on trying to do our very best and let’s wait and see, what kind of speed we find there. Once again my target is to finish that rally, too.

Kimi

www.kimiraikkonen.com