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Living
up to his 'Iceman' nickname, Kimi Raikkonen shrugged off his last
stage roll in Finland today as 'part of the sport' and said his
World Rally Championship debut had been good fun.
Despite
engine problems today, Raikkonen was placed 15th overall when he
crashed his Abarth Grande Punto S2000 on a left-hand corner, 3km
from the start of the day's final stage, the 29.29km Vaarinmaja
(SS19).
The
car rolled into a ditch and although crowds of spectators managed
to drag it back onto the road it was too badly damaged to carry
on.
Minutes
after the accident, Raikkonen said the crash was the result of
putting his car in the wrong position on the approach to the
corner. "I knew that place but I came in with too wide a line,"
he said, "I thought we were going to go wide but then,
unfortunately, there were a lot of rocks and when I hit them the
car went over."
"I
thought we wouldn’t finish the rally because we had too many
problems with the engine! But it was good fun and nobody got hurt.
It happens - it's part of rallying," he added.
Back
in the Service Park, Raikkonen's co-driver Kaj Lindstrom told
wrc.com he was proud of what Kimi had achieved. "He proved he
has the speed, which before the rally nobody knew for sure,"
he said. "Getting to the finish of the rally was the main
thing here, but with the engine in such a bad shape we knew,
realistically, that wasn't going to happen.
"Kimi
wasn't overdriving to compensate for the engine, it was all down
to being on the wrong line on a very tricky corner - the same one
which caught out Mads Ostberg."
Lindstrom
confirmed that the extent of the damage ruled out a SuperRally
return on Sunday. He also said more rallies with Kimi were a
possibility but wouldn't be drawn on when and where.
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