Raikkonen : There is still more to learn

Kimi Raikkonen says he still has plenty to learn despite scoring points on Rally Sweden earlier this month.

Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One world champion, finished eighth on the world championship season-opener in his ICE 1 Racing Citroen DS3 WRC alongside co-driver Kaj Lindstrom.

The Finn has elected to skip next week’s Rally Guanajuato Mexico but will return to the WRC on Vodafone Rally de Portugal following a test on gravel, where he says the learning process will continue.

“Before [Sweden] we had only one day for testing so obviously there is much to learn,” the 31-year-old told his official website. “While the car felt good, still the race is the race and when you get very challenging and changeable weather it is difficult.”

“Every time after the rally you feel you could have gone faster. But [the] most important feeling was this time [was] I have learned more and improved from last year. Sweden was a good start for the season. The next rally for us is Portugal. Before that we have a test. Now it’s time to start working to go well on gravel too.”

As well as adjusting to Citroen’s DS3, Raikkonen said he still had to make improvements to his pace notes.

“We still have to focus more on the pace notes,” said Raikkonen, who finished 10th in last season’s final WRC standings. “There were not that many places we had it wrong but there were some, we had to change before the second pass. If you get it wrong, it’s always very tricky to keep the car on the road. It’s challenging to work with pace notes that’s for sure.”

“But it was great fun to get back racing again. We didn’t have any major problems and we seemed to get closer to the frontrunners. Actually it was pretty much an easy-going rally for us in very tricky circumstances.”