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2007 World F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen is out of this weekend’s Rally de Espana after rolling his Citroen during the pre-event shakedown.
The flying Finn went flying a bit too early in proceedings, and damaged his car in the shakedown to the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship. The impact wasn’t a huge one, but it damaged his Citroen C4 WRC’s roll cage too badly for him to continue.
This year’s Rally de Espana is being run for the first time on both gravel and asphalt surfaces, and the shakedown stage contained a bit of both. Raikkonen clipped a bank on a left-hand corner halfway through the second run, just after the gravel finished and the asphalt began. The impact tipped his car over, and it rolled. The roll cage just above co-driver Kaj Lindstrom’s seat was damaged, which meant that for safety reasons Raikkonen’s car will not start the rally.
“It was just one of those stupid things that happens sometimes: I just touched the bank and the car rolled,” said Raikkonen.
“It’s the sort of thing that if you’re lucky you get away with it, but on this occasion there was something that damaged the roll cage on Kaj’s side of the car.
“We can’t restart so that’s the end of that. It’s a pity as I think it was a rally that might have suited us but now we’ll never know. I’m obviously disappointed, but I’ve been around motorsport for long enough to know that disappointments are part of the game sometimes; it’s how you deal with them that matters.”
