From WRC.com | Autosport.com | MTV3.fi
WRC convert Kimi Raikkonen got his first taste of the Citroen C4 WRC
on Tuesday, at a private gravel test track close to the team’s
workshops in Satory, France.
This initial shakedown allowed the
Finn to start getting used to the car that he will drive in the 2010
FIA World Rally Championship.
With only a few weeks left before
this year’s World Rally Championship season gets underway in Sweden on
12 February, Raikkonen has already started his preparations in earnest.
The 2007 Formula 1 World Champion, and his co-driver Kaj
Lindstrom, visited Citroën Racing’s facilities in Versailles on Tuesday
for seat fittings and to meet team personnel.
The Finn was then
able to drive the C4 WRC on a gravel test track within the Satory
complex. Having covered around 50 kilometres, the latest Citroen Junior
Team signing appreciated the chance to familiarise himself with his new
car.
"I very much enjoyed meeting the team properly for the
first time," he said. "It was good to try out a few different things; I
was very interested to see how the car reacted when you changed some of
the settings. Now, I’m really keen to get back behind the wheel of the
C4 again!"
Raikkonen’s first competitive outing will be on 28
January. In order to prepare for the forthcoming Swedish Rally, the
Finn is scheduled to compete on the Arctic Lapland Rally.
Pictures:
Wallpapers:
Loeb: Welcome Räikkönen!
From MTV3.fi
Rally’s six-time champion Sébastien Loeb welcomes Kimi Räikkönen to the Citroën team.
Räikkönen will be competing in the coming season in Citroën’s Junior
Team. Citroën’s factory team’s first driver Loeb is waiting for the
F1-star’s first season in WRC with excitement.
"It will be interesting. This is an entirely new sport for him so
the beginning can be quite difficult. There is a lot to learn but
taking account his skill-level I believe the adaptment will happen
pretty quickly," Loeb said in French Sports.fr-site’s interview.
There will be three tarmac rallies in the coming WRC-season. Loeb
doesn’t believe though that Räikkönen is that strong due to his
background in track-racing.
"I don’t think he will do better in tarmac just because he comes
from Formula One, especially because Finns are usually good at gravel.
Any way, it’s a pleasure to welcome him to the team," Loeb continued.
FUCK ISRAEL 
Do you think Kimi hide his hairs in his hat or maybe he cut it? Because on the lastest picture of him with redbull, his hair were very long and I don’t think there is enough space in his hat. lol
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Haha, the hat he is wearing is a full beanie so maybe all his hair can hide under it. Time will tell!
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awesome 😀
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Finally!!! Pictures!! It´s great to see Kimi in his new car!!!! I´m so happy!!! thanks saima for the pictures!!!!!!GO KIMI!!!!!!
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I need to get a beanie like that myself. Kimi can hide all his hair. And I can hide my lack of hair. Everybody wins. lolThx for posting this and the pics Saima 🙂
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Can’t wait to watch Kimi racing in WRC. Unfortunately there is no broadcast of WRC in Malaysia, any idea we are able to watch the race online in any website in the race days?
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LOL Soren !!!I think he hided it under his cap, well at least, monday evening there were still some curls which exceeded from it !!When I think I missed that test , pffff , I could have tried to glimpse him in action !! pity !!but that is awesome !! Here we go again ! :))Yuss, we know motorstv will show broadcasts.
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yaay..kimi..;-Dgood luck!!
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Saima, thanks for the pictures. GOOOOOOOO KIMI!!!!!!!!!
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good luck wit dis year kimi hope ya do very well!!…can"t wait to see ya in action..
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Don’t miss the hi-resolution pics of his test here:http://cid-a01a464bbc0e816c.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Citroen%20C4%20Test/Hi-Res🙂
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Awesome Pics :)Any reports about the timings? 😛
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great job Saima!!!! tahnkyou thankyou thankyou for first prcious photos and impressions!keep pushing Kimi!!!!!!!!!!!
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Well it was a private test so there’s nothing about the times he set from Citroen’s website or other sources, apart from just mentioning that he did 50km testing:http://www.citroen-wrc.com/spip.php?page=homeflash&langue=uk
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from wrc.com interveiw with seb loebThere’s been a lot of excitement about your fellow Citroen driver Kimi Raikkonen joining the WRC. How do you think he’ll do this year?"It’s difficult to say. I’m sure Kimi is a good driver. He’s shown what he can do in Formula One and I’m sure he will be able to go very fast with a rally car, but maybe the most difficult thing for him will be to get used to making pace notes and then to trust them. That’s often the hardest thing. But we saw in Finland he was able to do some impressive things and to go fast, so with a little experience I’m sure he’s going to do some good rallies."Have you given him any advice?"No. I haven’t seen him recently, but if he needs some advice, and if he asks, then I will of course – as long as he doesn’t beat me…"
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Cool, thanks Michael! Loeb’s a good guy, hopefully we’ll get to see some funny interactions between him and Kimi this year!There are a couple more good articles to read (translated from Finnish by Nicole) such as Heikki Kovalainen talking about Kimi going rally and what the Finnish nation think about Kimi’s change of interest, you can find them here:http://krs.20.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=60976&highlight=#60976
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No problems!, Yes Loeb does come across like a real good guy, and has no ego for someone that is a 6-time world champion which is rare! Very humble guy!
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Hello everyone, sorry about the comment-posting being disabled. It’s because there were a lot of spam messages posted all over the blog during the weekend, again, unfortunately.Anyways, some good news, Kimi’s brother Rami is going to join the Arctic Lapland Rally!http://kiti.akk-motorsport.fi/modules/system/stdreq.aspx?P=1&VID=default&SID=584449423183281&A=open%3akiti%3aregistration_listclasses%3a192456%2cset%3asession.l9%3aregistration_listclasses&S=2&C=55554This is because Kimi gave his old rally car as a present to his brother recently 🙂 Rami was a very good professional rally driver for a while, came runner-up twice to Hirvonen, but now is a family man. He’s got two adorable sons, Juusto and Titus, who you may have seen at Rally Finland: http://cid-a01a464bbc0e816c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Rally%20Finland%202009/rallyfinland09krs115.jpgUncle Kimi bought them a quad bike too LOL
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wrc.comCitroen factory team driver Dani Sordo will join his new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for a pre-season outing on Finland’s Arctic Lapland Rally on 29 January, a fortnight before their WRC campaigns kick off in Sweden.Based from Rovaniemi, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the event, the opening round of the Finnish championship, has been run for 45 years and is often used as a test ahead of winter rallies in the WRC.Raikkonen’s entry on the rally – his competitive debut in a Citroen C4 – was confirmed in early December, while Sordo’s entry was announced by organisers today. It will be Sordo’s first attempt at the Arctic, an event on which Raikkonen made his rally debut last year, when he finished 13th in a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto S2000 co-driven by Kaj Lindstrom.Another former F1-driver, Mika Salo, driving a Ford Fiesta in this year’s Arctic, believes Raikkonen has a chance of fighting Sordo for overall victory. Salo told Finnish television channel MTV3 that Raikkonen’s familiarity with the stages could prove more valuable that Sordo’s experience of the C4 WRC. Some good quality drivers taking part it seems which is good, good test as well for kimi
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Hi Saima, Rami’s other son’s name must be Juuso, because juusto is cheese. 😉 LOL. Rami will join Kimi in the Arctic Rally. I’ve read from Turun Sanomat that the swedish rally fans are looking forward seing Kimi in the rally of Sweden! Nice! Maybe Nicole will send you the translation of that article.2 minuuttia sitten | Poista
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Hahaha… really Leila? Oh dear, I read somewhere that it was Juusto and also others have been using this name. Strange!
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Nicole just confirmed it to me, his name is Justus! 🙂
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http://www.crash.net/f1/news/156173/1/kimi_raikkonen_the_door_to_f1_is_still_open.htmlf1 chance it’s not closed….ah aha ha great fun for the Raikkonens :)))))Kimi’ll take it very seriously! and he has his very first test with c4, he’ll fight for win!It’s a great think to can read what Swedish thinks about Kimi’s potential and importance in this beautiful sport that is rally!Juustu and his brother are so cute 😀
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