Kimi Raikkonen will be back to World Rally Championship Greece next week guys, almost two months after he made his last appearance in the series in Jordan, where he finished sixth in his Ice 1 Racing Citroen DS3 WRC.
Since then the
ex-Formula One world champion has made his NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series debut, finishing 15th at Charlotte, a result he followed up by
claiming 27th on his first appearance in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at
the same venue one week later.
Raikkonen has yet to compete on the Loutraki-based Acropolis Rally
and will be braced for a tough test on the punishing gravel stages. He
spent today (Wednesday) reacclimatising to the rigours of driving his
turbocharged Citroen on gravel roads during a test near Marseille in the
south of France where he covered approximately 150 kilometres.
Benoit
Nogier, who manages the Citroen Racing Technologies operation, the
company responsible for running Raikkonen’s DS3 WRC, spoke to Wrc.com
following the test. He said: “We were very happy with his performance in
Jordan and he has a good opportunity for Greece. We found a road with a
condition as close as possible to Greece and Kimi was quite happy. It
will be a tough rally, not necessarily for the drivers but for the cars.
The first day is very long with only a remote service but Kimi is not a
rookie anymore and will be able to manage this situation.”
Raikkonen,
who is co-driven by fellow Finn Kaj Lindstrom, will be anxious to kick
start his promising 2011 WRC campaign in Greece after skipping the last
two rounds in Italy and Argentina. He had described his performance on
the Jordan Rally in mid-April as his best in the series so far and would
have equalled his career-best fifth place but for a late puncture.
“The
driving has been better and we’re pushing harder now,” Raikkonen was
quoted as saying recently. “My only target really is to improve in the
WRC.”
The Acropolis Rally will mark the fourth of Raikkonen’s
planned 10 appearances in the WRC. He’s currently ninth in the drivers’
standings on 18 points. Ice 1 Racing is sixth in the manufacturers’
standings with 26 points.
