Loeb Believes in Raikkonen in the WRC

Six-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb thinks highly of his new Citroen teammate Kimi Raikkonen, whom he sees as a successful rookie in 2010. Although he has only one rally outing on his CV prior to making his official debut with Citroen in the WRC, Raikkonen proved everyone that he has the speed to compete in the series during his Rally Finland stint.

Talking about Raikkonen's prospects in 2010 and what people expect of him this season, Loeb insisted that there is no doubt the Finn is a very good driver.

“It's easy to see he can drive the car, there's no doubting he's a very good driver. He's a Finn, he has been brought up on slippery surfaces and I'm sure he was playing around on them for a long time, it's natural that he will be good like the other Finnish drivers,” said Loeb, ahead of Raikkonen's first official event with the Citroen C4 WRC, during this weekend's Arctic Rally.

Loeb will not make the starting grid of the Rovaniemi-based event on Friday, as his Citroen factory teammate Dani Sordo was permitted to take the C4 in Finland alongside Raikkonen. This will be a good preparation for the two drivers prior to the season opening Rally Sweden, which will run on the same type of roads (snowy, icy) as this weekend's rally.

“This experience will be as useful to the team as it will be to the individual crews. Kimi will drive a C4 WRC in identical specification to the one that he will race over the rest of the season. Similarly, the crew of technicians in Rovaniemi will remain on his car for the remainder of the year,” added Citroen Racing Technologies team manager Benoit Nogier.

Last year, when contesting in the Arctic Rally at the wheel of a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000, Raikkonen ended the event in 13th place.