Rally Sweden Shakedown & Press Conference

Source: FIA.com

Pre-event Press Conference. Present: Sébastien
Loeb – Citroën Total World Rally Team, Mikko Hirvonen – BP Ford Abu
Dhabi World Rally Team, Kimi Räikkönen – Citroën Junior Team, Marcus
Grönholm – Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team.

Q: Kimi, welcome to the WRC. We will see you compete this year
with the Citroën Junior team; is this year going to be one of the
biggest challenges you have faced in your career?
KR: I
think it’s definitely going to be. It’s not going to be easy, I will
enjoy it and enjoy the challenge. This will be one of the toughest
events; the conditions are not easy. I need more time in the car to get
used to it.

Q: The preparation is now complete, we have
watched you test the car and compete at the Arctic Rally; do you feel
fully ready to compete here in Sweden?
KR: Any kilometres
we can do will obviously help. This is the learning process, we will
learn a lot in Sweden and I expect once we go on the gravel it should be
more easy. I hope we can finish and do some good times.

Q: What
have you found the most enjoyable and the most difficult aspects of
your WRC experience so far?
KR: Everything is nice. It’s
all exciting. I did F1 for many years, and when you change it’s a nice
experience. There are so many new things to learn. The difficult thing
is to learn the roads and make the pace notes, that will take time to be
as good as the others guys. This is the main thing, let’s see how it
goes.

Q: Can you be in the top 10 here?
KR: That
would be good. I really don’t have any idea where we’re going to be. We
want some good speed. It’s more easy second time through (the stages);
we will try to do the best we can.

Q: You’ve got World
Champions sitting next to you. Have you had some good advice from them?
KR: They
have been very helpful, but, unfortunately, you cannot teach the other
guy to drive – you need to learn it yourself. It’s the experience that
helps. They have maybe six years, Marcus has 20 years or something. It’s
why I’m here to learn more.

Alain Pernot – Sport
Auto, France
Q: Kimi, how useful was the shakedown for
tuning the car?
KR: We tried two things, but it was the
first time since the Arctic Rally, so it was nice to get back in the
car. The car feels okay, but I can improve my driving rather than
changing the car.

Marco Giordo – Autosprint, Italy
Q: Kimi,
what you think about rally people, the media and the people? Are they
different from F1?
KR: So far, it’s been friendly, if it
stays like that..! For sure it’s a different atmosphere. I have enjoyed
it. It’s been positive.

Eric Briquet – Auto Hebdo, France
Q: In
the Arctic Rally you did some good times Kimi, you were one second
behind Dani (Sordo) – is it possible to be one second behind the leader
here?
KR: It will be more difficult. At least in the Arctic
Rally, I was there one year before. If we can do that speed I’m very
happy. But definitely the stages look very difficult and hopefully we’ve
made good notes.

Marcus Stier – Sport Auto, Germany
Q: Kimi,
you have a one-year programme this year, will you try to build a career
in WRC or go back to F1?
KR: I have not made my mind up.
This year I have a contract with Red Bull and with Citroen helping me. I
have no plans for next year or for the years after. If it goes well,
there’s a good chance [to stay in WRC], if not then there’s nothing
planned. After a year there might be some new plans, we’ll see.

---

Neil Cole wrote: 10min interview
w/
Raikkonen for DAVE.

"I hated the radio in F1 & always shouted back,
so listening to pacenotes is hard!"

---

Source: WRC.com

Loeb fastest at Sweden Shakedown

Defending World Rally
Champion Sebastien Loeb sent a clear signal to his rivals today by
setting the fastest time at the pre-Rally Sweden Shakedown test in his
Citroen C4 WRC.

The four-hour test took place on a 4km stage in
Hagfors, just south of the event’s main Service Park. Conditions were
perfect for this season’s only winter round, with light snow falling
throughout the session and a temperature of a chilly -8 degrees Celsius.

Loeb, the leader of the Citroen Total team, made four passes
through the stage in his C4 WRC, setting his best time of 1min 53.4sec
on his final attempt. Returning to the Service Park, the six time World
Champion told wrc.com he was satisfied with the set-up of his car but
warned that stage conditions could make this a very difficult event.

"My
car felt okay, no problems, but Shakedown is a bit special I think
compared to the first pass through the stages we will have tomorrow," he
said. "In the stages there is snow and a lot of slippery conditions but
the Shakedown was full of gravel so there was a lot of grip. Friday’s
first stage has a good ice base, on the second there was just snow on
the recce, and for me that’s not good. We’re very close to the gravel
underneath, so the second pass will be rough and hard for the tyres.

"I
don’t have much experience of the tyres in these conditions, but for
sure we’ll start to lose some studs. I don’t know how to save the tyres
on a surface like this. We’ll have to see."

Loeb’s Citroen
team-mate Dani Sordo was his closest rival, in a time 1.4sec slower. "My
car set-up feels really good, I’m really happy, but we stopped after
our fourth pass because the surface was completely gravel and we would
have destroyed the tyres," said the Spaniard. "The grip we get with
these tyres on gravel is just incredible, but if the surface goes back
to snow after 10 or 11kms, and the tyres are worn out, then we could be
in trouble."

Jari-Matti Latvala was third quickest in his BP Ford
Abu Dhabi Team Focus RS WRC, while his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen was
fourth quickest in another Focus.

Five time Rally Sweden winner
Marcus Gronholm rounded off the top five times in his Ford Focus – a car
he last tackled a WRC rally with in 2007. "Once we got the seat
position right the car felt okay," he said. "It feels very like the old
car, but a little bit better in the engine and the suspension areas.
It’s good."

On his first WRC shakedown in a Citroen C4 WRC,
former F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen set the 11th fastest time, six
seconds slower than Loeb.

The opening stage of the rally, the
1.9km Karlstad Super Special Stage, gets underway on Thursday evening at
2004hrs. Stage and split times will be streamed LIVE and FREE here on
wrc.com.

Here are the Shakedown times of the leading WRC drivers:

1. LOEB. Citroen C4 WRC. 1:53.4
2.
SORDO. Citroen C4 WRC. 1:54.8
3. LATVALA.
Ford Focus RS WRC 09. 1:55.8
4. HIRVONEN. Ford Focus
RS WRC 09. 1:56.0
5. GRONHOLM. Ford Focus RS WRC
08. 1:56.2
6. P. SOLBERG. Citroen C4 WRC. 1:56.3
7.
OGIER. Citroen C4 WRC. 1:57.4
8. H.SOLBERG.
Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 1:57.6
9. OSTBERG. Subaru
Impreza WRC 09. 1:59.0
10. WILSON. Ford Focus RS WRC
08. 1:59.4
11. RAIKKONEN. Citroen C4 WRC. 1:59.3
12.
AL QASSIMI. Ford Focus RS WRC 08. 2:00.8

(View PDF of shakedown times)