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Kimi
Raikkonen’s first attempt at asphalt rallying came to a
premature end on Saturday when a mechanical problem led to his
retirement from the Rally della Marca.
The
Ferrari Formula One star was driving his own Abarth Grande Punto
S2000 on the Italian rally, but was affected from the start by a
broken centre differential.
The
Finn struggled through two stages but stopped on the third after
his car’s wayward handling contributed to an impact with a wall
which broke a rear track control arm.
Raikkonen
was co-driven by Kaj Lindstrom, the man who formerly partnered
multiple WRC champion Tommi Makinen.
Lindstrom
told wrc.com it was a disappointing way to end an event which had
looked promising. “We tested on Tuesday last week and Kimi was
doing so well, his driving was really impressive,” he said.
“You can see how he can go 300kph a F1 car. He knows how to take
the fast corners and he knows that sometimes the tyres slide a bit
and he’s not upset with that. He’s good on snow and gravel but
certainly very talented on tarmac.”
The
problems started as the pair drove to the pre-event shakedown.
“We knew something was wrong with the car and when the boys had
a look they found the centre diff was broken,” he said. “They
changed it for the rally but apparently it broke again, for
reasons we don’t yet know. The car wasn’t working properly
even on the first stage. It was like driving a rear-wheel drive
car, but then every now and then you’d get full four-wheel drive
and the front wheels would pull. It was very inconsistent and made
the handling nervous - especially under braking.“
We
did two stages, and then 4km into the third the car went off under
braking and hit a concrete wall with a rear corner, breaking the
lower control arm. We carried on for about 7km but we had to stop.”
Lindstrom
said Raikkonen had coped with the situation well, and hinted that
more rally outings were on the cards. “After the impact he said
he wasn’t that upset because the car wasn’t performing as it
should be,” said Lindstrom. “Even after the first stage we had
given away a lot of time. It would have been a different story if
the car had been okay. Looking forward, yeah, there is a plan.
I’d say it’s most likely he will do more rallies this year.”
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