|
The
third day of the Rally of Turkey was shortened by two special
stages this morning. Deniz 1 and Mudarli 1 were made impassable by
heavy overnight rain and were cancelled by the event organisers.
Kimi
Raikkonen enjoyed a fantastic Rally of Turkey, finishing fifth
overall to add more points to his rally total and score his best
ever result in a rally car.
But
while Kimi`s reactions and car control are awesome, there are some
things that even a former Grand Prix champion cannot control -
such as erupting volcanoes.
More
than 500 people from the different world rally teams have been
left stranded in Turkey - and Kimi and Kaj are two of them. Kimi`s
solution will probably consist of flying to somewhere in Italy and
then embarking on a long car journey back to his home in
Switzerland.
Kimis
Citroen Junior Team will head back to their base in Paris on a
fleet of buses, while other people are looking at solutions
involving boats and trains.
Ironically,
the rally´s base in Istanbul was the traditional terminus of the
Orient Express, the luxury train service that used to link France´s
capital with Turkey.
The
world of rallying may not always be glamorousI,but Kimi is
thoroughly enjoying it after a fault-free Rally of Turkey in which
he showed that he is a quick learner.
On
only his ninthever rally, the Iceman beat several drivers with far
more experience and set stage times that were never out of the top
10 - and often in the top six.
"I
am really pleased with the way it´s gone," said Kimi.
"There
was nothing particularly special; we just paid good attention to
the pace notes and made sure that we made no mistakes.
The
stages were really tough, particularly on the last day when it was
very muddy: it felt like driving on ice. I´m learning all
the time and that´s a really nice feeling: a bit like my early
days of circuit racing. I´m very happy, although I have no idea
exactly how we are getting home tonight. It really doesn´t
matter, I´m sure we´ll find a way...!"
The
next event for Kimi and Kaj in the Red Bull Citroen will be the
Portugal Rally from May 28-30, but before then they are hoping to
do some testing in order to increase their experience.
|
P
|
Driver
|
Car
|
Time
|
Gap
|
SS
|
| 1 |
S.
Loeb |
Citroën |
3:01:38.7 |
|
23 |
| 2 |
P.
Solberg |
Citroën |
3:02:33.2 |
+
54.5 |
23 |
| 3 |
M.
Hirvonen |
Ford |
3:03:22.1 |
+
1:43.4 |
23 |
| 4 |
S.
Ogier |
Citroën |
3:05:24.7 |
+
3:46.0 |
23 |
| 5 |
K.
Räikkönen |
Citroën |
3:08:23.0 |
+
6:44.3 |
23 |
| 6 |
F.
Villagra |
Ford |
3:09:35.4 |
+
7:56.7 |
23 |
| 7 |
M.
Wilson |
Ford |
3:10:08.5 |
+
8:29.8 |
23 |
| 8 |
J.
Latvala |
Ford |
3:21:22.9 |
+
19:44.2 |
23 |
| 9 |
D.
Kuipers |
Ford |
3:25:00.9 |
+
23:22.2 |
23 |
| 10 |
A.
Burkart |
Suzuki |
3:28:43.4 |
+
27:04.7 |
23 |
| 17 |
H.
Solberg |
Ford |
3:57:42.3 |
+
56:03.6 |
23 |
|