UPDATE: Raikkonen Crashes Out of Arctic Rally

Kimi Raikkonen's first outing with the Citroen C4 WRC turned out to be a total failure, at least as far as the first day of the Arctic Rally is concerned. During the special stage 2 of the Finnish event, the former Ferrari-an lost control of his car in a corner and smashed it into a tree. The fans from the sidelines pushed the car back onto the road, but Kimi was unable to make it to the finish line in the projected time of the stage.

“From what we hear, Kimi has hit the tree and knocked it down. We will have to wait and see what is the damage to the car. Maybe it's possible for them to come back tomorrow – we hope so,” said an organizer of the aforementioned event, as quoted by Autosport.

The Friday-to-Saturday event started off well for the new Citroen driver, who managed to finish the first special stage of the morning only 5 seconds behind regular Citroen WRC driver Daniel Sordo. However, the win in the Arctic Rally is now out of the question, but the members of the Red Bull Citroen team will try to get the Finn back into the event under the superally regulations.

Unfortunately for the Finnish debutant, superrally rules do not apply in the Arctic Rally, as this is not a WRC-sanctioned event. The same Autosport report revealed that the Finnish organizers will try to bring Kimi back into the rally however, only it is not sure whether Citroen will manage to repair the car in time for the tomorrow stages.

Another option would be for Raikkonen to run the organizers' course car throughout the Saturday stages of the event. Hopefully he'll drive more carefully and take it to the end of the event in once piece...

UPDATE: It seems Raikkonen made it to the Citroen service park at the end of stage 3, after being able to drive the C4 through Stage 3 of the event. The Finn is expected to rejoin the field some 7 minutes late at the start of stage 4, after the Citroen mechanics replaced the radiator, oil cooler and front/rear bodywork of his C4. Good luck, Kimi!