Really accurate commentating they have, the only thing they said about Kimi was that he had a couple of spins.

Citroën? I know it is the make of the car but still windscreen and rear wing sport it pretty big....

Kimi's car surely has the most sexiest livery of all.

so far not too bad for Kimi.. hope that he does not run into trouble.... if he comes out unscratched of this event... will be nice for his confidence.
he mentioned last year that snow/ice is the hardest surface for him

This is one of the best so far...

And now he gets carried away... and...

KIMI Just keep that 8th till the end mate!

So far so goood! Hope he won´t overdo it now!! Take the 8th place Kimi! It would be good way to start the season

5th in stage 13 faster than Peter. Our boy is starting to go realy fast. New cars came good to him as everyone is starting from zero.

I'm getting more and more nervous by the minute. He has already showed this afternoon that he can be as fast as the big guys, good for the future, there's some hope (or at least I'm getting it back). What about driving a bit slower for the rest of the day and make it to the finish line?

Kimi is starting to speed up it seems, this is quite exciting!

It is strange and conflicting to see Kimi posting green splits! On the one hand it is great to see, and on the other hand you are thinking Kimi just finish the rally! But if he is comfortable doing those times then he should go for it I think.

He must have heard heidfeld is doing good at jerez.

Something tells me that, right now, he doesn't give a ... about what's going on in F1. 5th best time again, only 0.6 seconds behind Petter Solberg, in a 18 kilometres long stage. What did they give him for lunch?

hehe, i thought the same.... but i think kimi is enjoying himself....it shows dedication and ownership too... fielding his own rally car, his own team... getting his own personal sponsors (although i dont see them yet on the car) but no one can say he's in it for the big cash.

much more consistent too... so far...

guys whts the overall position and where can i watch the timings? stage and overall rally as well.

thx

indeed.. driving the same time as an experienced Solberg
we suspected the talent to be there.. now the consistency over a weekend and season!

http://wrc.com/results/2011/rally-sweden/split-times/

http://wrc.com/results/2011/rally-sweden/stage-times/

Two consecutive 5th fastest in stages.....very close to being 4th on both occasions.....will he be able to keep it in the road.

Great results, its early days but it looks like he's making solid progress, 2 consec 5ths is not to be sniffed at

he's 7 th right now. f*** he's going fast! It's just a matter of time. He's crashing!

Same thing in my mind.

No way, I believe it, this will be OK.

from wrc.com ... puts things a bit in perspective (after one day of testing...)... which also poses a risk of crashing.. since he's still getting to know the car... fingers crossed.

****
Kimi Raikkonen says he is pleased with the progress he is making aboard his Citroen DS3 WRC - despite driving the car in untested conditions yesterday. The Finn drove a World Rally Car on a WRC event for the first time in Sweden last season and the ex-Formula One world champion admits he has come a long way in the last 12 months.

“My aim is the same as last year, we driving in the same way and we’re trying to achieve the same thing,” said Raikkonen. “I want to get to know the car more. Still, at the moment, the car is capable of going faster than I am driving it, but we only had one day to test it and this will take more time. I tested for a day, but not in the conditions which we had yesterday morning, with the deeper snow - we tested in icier roads.”

Raikkonen is lying in ninth place, more than four minutes off the leader as the event closes on its halfway point. His only problems so far have been a spin on SS2 and a puncture on the penultimate stage of day one. “I touched the snowbank and the car turned around,” said the ICE 1 Racing driver. “But it was nice not to be digging this year like I was when I went off last year!”

Raikkonen’s co-driver Kaj Lindstrom admitted he has been impressed with what he has seen on their first return to a WRC round in a World Rally Car.
“It’s been a year, or almost a year, that he has been driving and the improvements have come, he’s driving very well.”
****

Great to see some optimism, he could crash, but then again, he might not, i'm hoping for the latter, and the general trend is upwards, its all good

Lets hope very hard! His performance so far as been genuinly amasing!

Its a great start to the season.

Can not deny that. He has proved that, in these conditions at least, can be a match for the best. That is something!

he was 8 on ss11, first pass, maybe he'll push for ss15 ... I hope he will not get complacent (probably Kaj is trying to keep him in check...)

in between stages... i just watched this video http://wrc.com/video/onboards/iceman-cover...-snow/?vid=1980
perhaps posted already... it made me dizzy... you guys think he is missing F1?

Actually i think it's Formula 1 that misses him.

by the way the wrc.com website has really improved a lot. last year it was a bit messy. now it is quite good coverage from the rally ... better presentation of the split times and stage times... better videos

i dont know though if they have an end of day round up video... cant find it.. would be great to see that.

The live timings have been a bit ropey yesterday, they seem slightly better today, and ESPN do a round up

http://mypremium.tv/ *

Thanks to Intelligentsia*

seems like another 5th place (SS15)

Isn't it 4th ?

Kimi survives!!!!!!!!!!!1 ........Nice drive from Kimi today......he has been so closer to P. Solberg today on the later stages.

4th, it was a 4th! and only 1.3 seconds behind Petter.

And his comments to the radio: "The afternoon, it’s been ok."

ok?! But he was chuckling while he was saying that

Split timing is in the order of running.

A brilliant day, here's hoping he can keep the momentum up, he's shown he can consolidate a good result, a few more like this will do him no harm, and he can start building on them.

It's great to see him achieving some decent results, and with a little more consistency

good luck kimi raikkonen, hopefully can get a podium finish!

right... i am trying to understand wrc

so why is ogier not showing on the split times?

Yeah it's been "OK"

wow. Impresive performance. he's a real Rally driver by now.

Because the site is f***ed up, you gotta toggle between stage and split times to get an overview of what's goin' on, with lots of F5.
WRC is really cheap, they should invest a bit more in their internet presentation if they want more audience ...

BTW, Kimi ended that last stage with a puncture and the tyre almost out of the rim.

so he could have gone even faster...????

interesting that he beat Hirvonen between the 3rd split and finish...
that is what confused me... i thought Hirvonen finished before Kimi since he was in all 3 splits faster than Kimi.

It looks so

yeah they should add some javascript to the pages to make them refresh every 20 secs (just like the Greeks in Jerez)

They should do something, earlier i said the timings were better today, the very next time i tried they went tits up, its been shockingly bad on the whole.