After the first four stages of Rally of Turkey, former Formula 1 world champ Kimi Raikkonen is among the front pack of drivers that have separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Although standing ninth, and almost a minute behind leader Sebastien Ogier, Raikkonen is a full minute and 11 seconds in front of the 10th place driver. And his fourth and last stage was his best, with his running less than 12 seconds off the leader.
Dani Sordo and Miko Hirvonen rounds out the current top three. Sebastien Loeb is in fifth, less than a half-second behind Petter Solberg.
The WRC site is now crashing worse than Sebastian Buemi, so I have to turn to Autosport for this Kimi comment:
“It’s been okay,” Raikkonen said at the end of SS4. “The second stage was crazy because we didn’t have so much feeling about it. I hit some rock on this one [SS4], I couldn’t avoid it, I don’t know if it has damaged the rear. But apart from that, it’s been okay, not too bad.”
And now that I see the Autosport story, I have to share this, which again shows why, in Grace’s words, “rally is awesome”:
Henning Solberg and Ken Block crashed out in the same section of SS1, both believed to have had accidents after clipping large rocks. Both will return tomorrow under the superally rule.
Matthew Wilson had a lucky escape at the same spot in SS1 when he ran wide in his Ford and glanced off a boulder.
Any motorsport that includes the phrase “glanced off a boulder” in the recap needs to be shown more in America.
Here are the current standings:
Position Driver Car Time/Gap to leader
1. Sebastien Ogier Citroen 27m15.2s
2. Dani Sordo Citroen +2.1
3. Mikko Hirvonen Ford +3.0
4. Petter Solberg Citroen +7.4
5. Sebastien Loeb Citroen +7.8
6. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford +12.6
7. Federico Villagra Ford +40.4
8. Matthew Wilson Ford +51.7
9. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen +58.6
10. Ott Tanak Mitsubishi +2:10.5
