Dani Sordo got his Rally Sweden off to an encouraging start by
winning the opening superspecial in Karlstad this evening.
The Citroen number two took part in the recent Arctic Rally to
improve his pace on snow, and set the fastest time on tonight’s short
stage by two seconds over Citroen Junior driver Sebastien Ogier.
Likely title rivals Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) and Sebastien Loeb
(Citroen) took a cautious approach to the superspecial and finished
third and fourth.
Returning former world champion Marcus Gronholm (Stobart Ford) holds
equal fifth with Ford’s second works driver Jari-Matti Latvala, while
Kimi Raikkonen ended his first stage as a World Rally Championship
driver in joint eighth for Citroen Junior.
The only drama among the frontrunners was a spin by Petter Solberg.
The Norwegian shrugged off the incident as excessive oversteer, but will
start tomorrow’s full-length stages already 18s adrift of the lead.
SS1 - Karlstad Super Special Stage1
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Dani Sordo Citroen 1m31.4s
2. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 2.0s
3. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 2.1s
4. Sebastien Loeb Ford + 2.3s
5. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2.6s
= Marcus Gronholm Ford + 2.6s
7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 3.9s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 5.1s
= Mads Ostberg Subaru + 5.1s
10. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford + 5.2s
= P-G Andersson Skoda + 5.2s
(full results)
Source: WRC.com
On his first WRC stage with the Citroen Junior Team, Kimi Raikkonen
set the ninth fastest time. "That was okay," he said. "A little bit
cautious but I took it easy. It’s okay, all you can do on these stages
is lose it."
After this evening’s prelude, the proper stage
action begins on Friday morning at 0818hrs, when crews tackle the first
of six stages in the countryside north of Karlstad, before a return to
Karlstad for a repeat of the Super Special.
Kimi Raikkonen starts his new life
Source: AdamCooperF1.com
Kimi is excited by his new career. Will he ever come back to F1?
As we all get pumped up about F1 testing and this year’s stellar line-up
in the top few teams, let’s spare a thought for the World Champion who
got away – Kimi Raikkonen.
Squeezed out of Ferrari, admittedly with a nice parting gift in his bank
account, Kimi preferred the jump into the world of rallying to any
possible alternatives in F1. His fulltime WRC career gets under way in
Sweden today.
I spoke to him about the transition a few weeks ago, and you may have
read the resulting feature in Autosport. He had no reason to make
himself available during his winter break – there was no team or sponsor
telling him to do so – but purely as a favour he found the time to call
me back, and later even sent an email asking to see the story. And no,
he didn’t request any changes!
I’ve been lucky enough to spend a bit of time with Kimi away from the
track, and I would always argue that contrary to popular belief, he is
one of the most interesting drivers you could meet. He is great fun to
be with, and is also a decent human being. Many of his rivals, at least
those who occasionally hang out with him, would agree with me. Just ask
Pedro de la Rosa, his former McLaren team mate. You couldn’t meet two
drivers with such different public personas, and yet Pedro regards Kimi
as one his closest pals in the sport.
I didn’t have space to include everything Kimi said in that Autosport
interview, but with the WRC about to kick off it seemed like a good time
to return to the recording and scoop up the best outtakes for your
consumption. One thing he has certainly done right is get himself the
best possible equipment in the form of the Citroen, which is a huge step
up from the Abarth he played around with last year.
“The only option for me was in rallies, and I wanted to have at least a
competitive car,” he told me. “The Fiat was definitely not a good car,
everybody knows it, so if I go there I want to have a good team and good
car. So at least I give myself a chance if I learn quickly and get it
right I have a good car and team behind me.”
There’s no doubt that he’s deadly serious about getting decent results,
and podium finishes are his target. “That’s why I want to have a good
car, because in the end I want to do my best and try to get as high up
as I can. I have no interest to go there and just drive around, it’s
definitely to try to get good results.”
When I asked what type of surface he expected to do better on, he had no
doubts about where he would feel most at home.
“I would say the tarmac should be the easiest one, I did a little bit
with my Fiat on asphalt. For sure you can read the road more easily just
because you’ve done so much on tarmac in F1, it gives you a better
feeling. Snow is the most difficult thing. I’ve done most of my rallying
in the snow, but it’s still the most challenging thing.
“You’re doing some places 200 between the trees and for sure it’s
different than F1, but that’s part of the whole sport. You can get hurt,
so you’d better stay on the road!
“I need a lot of time in the car, and on rallies. Like I said it’s the
most difficult thing I have done in my career so far, the biggest
challenge. But I enjoy it and it’s good fun, it’s a new thing.”
This year of course he’ll be watching F1 from afar. Having given up the
chance to drive the McLaren, he’ll certainly keep an eye on how Jenson
Button, the man who eventually took the seat, will perform: “For sure
it’s interesting. I’m pretty sure that Lewis will beat him.”
He saved his best answer for when I asked whether he was concerned about
being forgotten by F1. “I don’t really stress much about those things.”
Kimi, I think we’d figured that one out…
FUCK ISRAEL 