The Ferrarian's Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000 had several engine problems during Day 2 of the Rally of 1000 Lakes, but Kimi was still able to run as high as 15th place overall going into the 29.29 km stage at Vaarinmaja. Only a few kilometers from the start, Raikkonen wrongly approached a corner and crashed his car in the process, rolling it into a ditch.
Although there were plenty of spectators dragging his car back to the road, the immense damage to its bodywork meant Raikkonen had to call it a day.
'The Iceman' soon admitted that this was a truly great experience for him and, even though he didn't get to finish his very first WRC event, is grateful for the opportunity Ferrari have granted him with. In addition, he revealed his crew was never going to finish the event anyway - regardless of crashing out or not - due to the seriousness of his car's engine problems.
"I knew that place but I came in with too wide a line. I thought we were going to go wide but then, unfortunately, there were a lot of rocks and when I hit them the car went over. I thought we wouldn't finish the rally because we had too many problems with the engine! But it was good fun and nobody got hurt. It happens - it's part of rallying," said Raikkonen.
Co-driver Kaj Lindstrom too insisted that Kimi did a great job this weekend, and praised his partner's efforts in Finland.
"He proved he has the speed, which before the rally nobody knew for sure. Getting to the finish of the rally was the main thing here, but with the engine in such a bad shape we knew, realistically, that wasn't going to happen," added the former co-driver of Tommi Makinen.
Later in the stage, 6th place holder Mads Ostberg crashed his Subaru in the very same corner, being forced out of the rally for the remainder of the weekend.
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