O Rali da Finlândia por Neil Cole

Ok, eu sei que o texto é grande e está em inglês, mas vale a pena dar uma conferida!

Neil Cole fala sobre os finlandeses, o rally, Kimi, enfim, gostei!!!

Kimi e Neil Cole, na quinta, dia 30.07

Further to my last blog which touched on Finnish characteristics, here is a joke told to me in Jyväskylä this weekend by a Finn: "what's the difference between a Finnish introvert and a Finnish extrovert? A Finnish introvert looks down at his own shoes, a Finnish extrovert looks down at someone else's shoes". Also, I once spent an afternoon in Tampere and at least 70% of the population was wearing Iron Maiden T-shirts... so it's not all horsepower and horseflies over there. One thing is for sure, they can organise a rally. You know you're in the middle of something special when you can walk a hundred yards and see Ari Vatanen, Tommi Mäkinen, Markku Alén, Marcus Grönholm, Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastien Vettel and Sébastien Loeb along the way. That's like having Pele, Maradona, Bobby Charlton, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michel Platini just hanging around, with Glenn McGrath & Ian Botham along for the ride. Just with more umlauts.

Without wishing to sound like an ISC press release, it actually felt like a tipping point for the sport - an uprecendented 2 year commitment from the current manufacturers, the service park a-buzz with rumours of at least 3 new constructors ready to commit, Loeb's stranglehold thoroughly relinquished in a genuine battle of speed, the world's media focused on the presence of Räikkönen, plus some frankly astonishing action... all this at a time when F1 seems to be imploding. Next I'll be telling you it's cool to be a rally fan again...

My weekend began with the pressure of being offered the only official one-on-one TV interview with Räikkönen. Preceded by a difficult reputation - especially in Finland, where he seems to be viewed with the same cynical tabloid scrutiny as our Premiership footballers - I found him warm, friendly and talkative. Iceman Schmiceman.

We then watched as he showed the speed of a genuine Group N contender, before sealing his fate as a PROPER rally driver by rolling his Punto into the forest. Having thus earnt his rally wings, I feel we will see Kimi scheduling his 2010 World Rally programme around the F1 calendar - "I won't have any testing with Ferrari, so there will be plenty of time". His early exit meant he could get down to the serious business of partying on Saturday night with Tommi Mäkinen and Petter Solberg - the kind of unhinged boozy shenanigans that only former world champion drivers and veteran rock stars seem capable of surviving.

Talking of Petter, what a disappointing weekend. Despite launching a new clothing line - the PS Passion Collection - his old Xsara really wasn't up to the task.

The dilemma, as ever, was: drive it within its limits and cruise home in 6th or 7th or push it until it falls apart or into a ditch. The latter option produced a double-retirement, and now the fate of the Petter Solberg World Rally Team looks sealed - no Rally Australia and possibly even no Wales Rally GB. Sadface.
One of the performances of the weekend was delivered by Evgeny Novikov - or Novik-off as he is known in some quarters. Showing the kind of speed, commitment, bravery and madness that might mark out a future World Champion he also at times seemed to be looking for another day-job: after a couple of expeditions as an amateur lumberjack, his part-time deforestation was only eclipsed by his attempt to join the Russian space programme with his ri-di-culous jump at Leustu. I spoke to his commendably unruffled Aussie co-driver Dale Moscatt on Sunday night, who was convinced the car had back-flipped. "I've done a lot of snowboarding, so I just instinctively looked up and back for the landing point". It's a clip which will be shown ad infinitum in World Rally, so if you haven't seen it already, familiarise yourself here:

Apart from that, a real coming-of-age drive from Mikko Hirvonen propels him into Finnish rallying legend - and I am proud to say I still have a sore bump on the side of my head from a sizeable stone kicked up by the back end of his sideways Focus on SS16 in pursuit of that victory. Loeb was magnanimous in defeat, Jari-Matti was redeemed despite making himself sick with nerves, and Harry Potter-lookalike Matti Rantanen managed to magic himself onto the World's stage with a brilliant display of Finnish Sisu - proving himself the best of the rest in 5th. Wingardium Leviosa!
Between now and Rally Australia, I will be co-driving for Tom Cave at the Richard Burns Memorial Rally 15th/16th August... with little bit of down-time in between. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Finnish for "speeding ticket" is "Rangaistusvaatimusilmoitus"

Fonte: Pole Position (dica de Red do Fórum Oficial de KR)

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy