Räikkönen is not considered to be any morning person but this time he started very flashy both on Friday and especially on Saturday.
On SS17 the Citroën bumped into a stone and crashed with the rear first in a wooden fence.
– The front bumper was twisted and the air started going under it. When I went a little bit faster, the front started to go in every direction and didn't want to stay on the track anymore. There was no sense in driving fast when the front went in every direction, Räikkönen said.
However the perfomance was classy. Appreciation for Räikkönen only grew bigger in experts minds.
– Of course as a Finnish viewer I would rather see Kimi going on with winning in F1, but things are like this now. Kimi is in a position where he can drive whatever he wants. He wants to drive rally and everybody knows that that boy controls cars. He will improve as a rally driver when he learns the notes so that he gets everything he wants out of them, Lasse Lampi thought.
– One shouldn't look at it so that one only stares on positions and says, oh, Kimi is 8th again. I observe Kimi's driving in a completely different way and I think his performances are better than I could have expected, Rauno Aaltonen said.
– Kimi shows a good control of his nerves and mind when he stays on the road. Rally on this level is in any case a battle and when you are on the limits, the marginal for making mistakes is always bigger. I take my hat off for Kimi.
Aaltonen wondered over Olivier Quesnel's statement that spread on the websites, about him being disappointed with Kimi's pace.
– I think it was a wrong verdict. One has to understand that people drive on different stages with different speed. A human being isn't a machine. For some a fast road is good, some again are at their best on very curly roads. It depends completely on motor function, the muscle's function and the way one thinks about where to look, Aaltonen said.
Turun Sanomat, Jyväskylä
HEIKKI KULTA
Courtesy: Nicole
