Rally Finland – or of the 1000 lakes, as most rally enthusiasts know it – is probably the most impressive rally in the championship, being ran on tarmac. This is hardly a surface that Raikkonen feels comfortable with, as the Finnish driver has only contested on one tarmac event before.
At the end of May, Raikkonen took his Tommi Makinen-prepared Fiat Abarthe Grande Punto S2000 in Northern Italy, for the local Rally della Marca event. While running in 8th place on special stage 3, his car hit a rock and caused him to withdraw from the rally. After further checks, is seems the accident did not happen because of Kimi, but a broken differential that affected the car's steering.
As for the upcoming Rally Finland – scheduled for the end of July – the Ferrari-an will continue to use the same Fiat Abarthe Grande Punto S2000, while co-driven by the Kaj Lindstrom.
“It's always a great rally and for Kimi it's of course an even bigger thing because this is his first time. It's one of the world's fastest rallies and double the length of for example the Arctic rally,” admitted Lindstrom in an interview with Finnish tabloid Iltalehti.
Lindstrom is a very experienced co-driver, especially when referring to the roads of the Finnish event. He has been co-driving in the Finnish Rally Championship for years now, while also doing a few outings in the WRC with Finland's ace Tommi Makinen (Subaru), in the early 2000s.
Google News