Raikkonen Close to Securing 2011 WRC Deal with Citroen

All you Citroen and Kimi Raikkonen fans can rest assured! The Finnish racer is close to 100 percent certain to continuing his adventure in the World Rally Championship, as his current negotiations with Citroen Junior Team are going predictably well.

According to Citroen's motorsport boss Olivier Quesnel, it seems that both Kimi and the Citroen Junior Team are eager to extend their partnership towards the 2011 campaign, with the help of the Finn's current sponsor Red Bull, of course.

“I know the negotiations are progressing well for Kimi to stay in the Citroen junior team. I don't know when something will be officially announced,” said Quesnel in a recent interview with the Autosprint magazine in Italy.

Red Bull is currently supporting his programme in the WRC, having secured Raikkonen the presence in 12 of the 13 rallies on schedule in 2010. However, his closeness to the Austrian energy drink company has led to several rumors mid-way through this year regarding a potential return to F1 with the Milton Keynes-based team.

The eventually did not work out, and Raikkonen flirted with the idea of coming back to F1 action with Renault. As you all know, that negotiation did not go very smooth for either of the two parties, with the Finn eventually accusing the Enstone based team of using his name for marketing reasons.

More recently, there were some rumors linking Raikkonen to a move to Ford – either the works team, or the Stobart M-Sport satellite – with backing coming from Monster energy drink, rivals to Red Bull.