“I imagined that the conditions would be worse than they were, particularly with the road surfaces,” said Raikkonen. “Stage eight for example, seemed really bad on the recce but when we did it on the rally it was OK. There were some tough places, sure, but actually not as many as I thought there would be. I’ve got nothing to compare this rally with, but it reminded me in some places of Turkey and Jordan last year. The stages on Saturday were nice actually: I enjoyed them.”Both the rough events in Jordan and Turkey resulted in points for Raikkonen last year, with co-driver Kaj Lindstrom confirming that the Finn has quickly adapted to the controlled driving style needed for the Acropolis, despite little pre-event preparation.
“He has a natural feeling for the car and the roads,” said Lindstrom, whose best result in Greece was fifth in 2003 Acropolis alongside Tommi Makinen. “We’ve stayed out of trouble on Saturday, which makes up for a difficult day on Friday. Now we can just concentrate on bringing the car to the finish and scoring some points.”
Räikkönen battled suspension problems and a puncture on the opening day of the world championship qualifier but he enjoyed perfect reliability throughout day two. With little chance of catching the car in front of him or being caught by the car behind him, Raikkonen will instead concentrate on gaining more experience behind the wheel of the DS3 in preparation for the remaining gravel rounds of the year.
Source: WRC
