Räikkönen, 13th in his first rally
The 2007 world champion, Kimi Räikkönen, has just concluded his first professional rally contract with a 13th place finish. The Finn participated this weekend in the Arctic Lapland Rally, which was held in his home country, Finland. He was behind the wheel of a FIAt Abarth Grande Punto S2000 and covered about ten nighttime stages […]
The 2007 world champion, Kimi Räikkönen, has just concluded his first professional rally contract with a 13th place finish.
The Finn participated this weekend in the Arctic Lapland Rally, which was held in his home country, Finland. He was behind the wheel of a FIAt Abarth Grande Punto S2000 and covered about ten nighttime stages totaling 230 kilometers of snowy and icy tracks near the Arctic Circle. His total time at the finish was 2 hours 7 minutes and 48 seconds.
He finished less than seven minutes behind the winner Juha Salo, and had more than seven minutes ahead of the double F1 champion, Mika Häkkinen, with a Mitsubishi Lancer.
However, former double World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm is not convinced of the Ferrari driver’s abilities.
« It is difficult to describe Räikkönen’s performance. He is a very good Formula 1 driver, but I don’t think he can learn to become a rally driver, » explained the 40-year-old Finn today.
The former Sauber and Ferrari driver, Mika Salo, was also part of the event, but the highest-ranked former Formula 1 driver was JJ Lehto, who finished this rally in ninth place, ahead of Räikkönen by one minute.
