Rally Jordan: Day 2 Updates

Following his switch from Formula 1 to the World Rally Championship, it
was widely expected that one of the biggest challenges facing Raikkonen
would be making accurate and consistent pace notes on the two
reconnaissance runs the crews make ahead of the competition.

Lindstrom said his driver’s notes were as good as the front-running WRC
crews during this week’s Jordan Rally. Lindstrom was even more pleased
as the Dead Sea-based event is renowned as one of the toughest rallies
on which to make notes courtesy of the barren, featureless roads.

Lindstrom said: "So far on this event we have made only five changes to
the notes from the first run to the second run. I think some of the
drivers at the front have probably made more changes than that. It’s
really good, I’m very pleased with the progress he has made."

Raikkonen, whose Red Bull-backed Citroen C4 WRC is eighth going into the
final day of the event, admitted there was still room for improvement,
saying: "Of course they can still be better, but it’s still early days –
we need more experience. One of the keys to go fast is with the notes
and here it has been difficult to make notes.

"It’s been the hardest event so far to make notes on, but then again
every rally I’ve done so far has been the hardest in my career, we have
to learn."

Raikkonen added the loose gravel on the Middle East roads had made the
going even tougher than expected. He said: "We have done some days in
the car in the gravel, but that has been normal gravel, yesterday was
very slippery. We need more experience of these conditions."

There’s still a long way to go as we have the final day left, and that’s
sure to be another big challenge with some tough stages and hot
weather. But I’m used to warm temperatures in Formula One, so that’s not
a problem. Somebody actually pointed out to me earlier that it was the
Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend; I hadn’t even realised until it was
mentioned.

The way I see it is that for now I’m a rally driver so I’m not thinking
about the past or the future, even though people keep asking me.
Obviously at some point I need to take a decision about what I do next,
but that won’t be until the second half of the year at the earliest.
Everything is possible, but I need to know how I will get on in rallying
before I take any decisions. For now I have only just started and so
far I am really enjoying myself.

The thing that has surprised me most about Jordan is how much the stages
change from the first run in the morning to the second run in the
afternoon. It’s almost like two different rallies because there is a lot
more grip the second time. But also I find that I have a lot more
confidence during the second run, because I have seen the roads before.

It just goes to show how important experience is in rallying. I knew it
from the start: we were never going to win overnight so we are roughly
where I thought we would be. Luckily we’ve not made any big mistakes
here so far – just a couple of spins and an overshoot – and that means
we are steadily able to build up the experience we need.

During the second loop of stages, Sébastien continued his exemplary
progress to return to the service park at the end of the day in second
overall. “We’ve been on the right road for a few events now and that’s
really positive,” he said. “We stuck firmly to our plan throughout the
day by staying behind Latvala. There’s a slight feeling of frustration
because I think we deserved our strategy to succeed all the way to the
end. But it’s nobody’s fault. The team did their job and we did ours.”
Sébastien Ogier will start second on the road tomorrow, 3.1 seconds
ahead of Latvala.

Kimi was sixth-fastest and then seventh-fastest on the two runs through
Suwayma, gaining a bit more experience today. “It was a bit better than
yesterday,” he reported. “Right from the start of the recce, we knew
that this would be a particularly tricky rally. We just need to learn
and rack up more kilometres on all the different surfaces. We had a spin
at the end of the day but the important thing is still to be here in
the evening. ”

SS12 – Kafrain 2