It all went wrong for Kimi Raikkonen of SS3 "Castelli", after he hit a pavement, spun the car and ripped the right hand rear wheel off, which forced the Finn to cruise through the remainder of the stage on three wheels.

Kimi Räikkönen’s first rally on asphalt and the first outside his native Finland ended fairly quickly following an accident on SS3 of the Rally della Marca, but not before the Ferrari F1 star had turned in some quick times in his Grande Punto Abarth. However the Abarth brand’s honour on the rally, which took place in Treviso, was capably upheld by Marco Signor who won the Super 2000 class, beating the Peugeot 207 of Andrea Biasiotto by just 6.1 seconds after a rally-long battle for the class win.

Räikkönen made his rally debut on the Arctic Lapland Rally in late January, turning in consistent times to finish 13th in a Grande Punto Abarth that he had bought privately. This was backed up quickly by his second rally, the SM Vaakuna Ralli, a month later, which again took place in the snow of his native land’s winter, and once more he proved to be adept at the sport, learning very fast, and never posting a time outside the top 10 in his Abarth before slipping into a ditch on the penultimate stage. For Saturday’s 26th edition of the Rally della Marca however, Räikkönen, who was filling in the vacant weekend between the Monte Carlo and Turkish Grands Prix, was swapping the freezing snow and ice of Finland for his first shot at asphalt, choosing the smooth, fast surfaces found in Italy, but with the consistency of having Kaj Lindström in the co-driver’s seat once again.

Nine asphalt stages comprised this year’s Rally della Marca. The longest test – ‘Monte Cessen’ at 17.66 km – would be run three times, while the shortest stage – ‘Monte Grappa’, at 11.79 km – would also see two tours. The other four stages would comprise ‘Monte Tomba’ at 12.08 km, and ‘Castelli’ at 11.79 km, both to be run twice. This added up to 124 km of timed tests and 304.34 km of transfer to make up a total rally distance of 428.34 km.

Räikkönen, who handed Scuderia Ferrari its first podium of the year last weekend in the glamorous setting of Monte Carlo, kicked off in Treviso on Saturday with the fourteenth-quickest time (and seventh-fastest of the Super 2000 runners) on SS1, Monte Cessen, out of 95 cars that safely negotiated their way through the opening test. The second stage, ‘Monte Tomba’, saw Raikkonen going seventeenth-fastest to put him, into fifteenth place overall.  But it all went very wrong for the 2007 F1 World Champion on the next test, his first time through ‘Castelli’, after he hit a pavement, spun the car and ripped the right rear wheel off, which forced the Finn to cruise through the remainder of the stage on three wheels in an episode somewhat reminiscent of Umberto Scandola’s accident on the Rallye Sanremo last year. The damage to Räikkönen’s Grande Punto Abarth S2000, which is being run this year by the rally team operated by four-time World Rally Champion Tommi Mäkinen, was too severe to be repaired and the Finn was out on the spot.

There was better fortune for Marco Signor/Maurizio Barone in their Grande Punto Abarth S2000, the Italian pair winning the Super 2000 category and coming home seventh overall after a titanic scrap with the Peugeot 207 of Andrea Biasiotto/Anna Tomaso. The battle eventually swung in the Scorpion crew’s favour, and the gap at the finish line was a slender 6.1 seconds. With this rally being open to the powerful WRC machines it meant that the top six places overall were filled by these cars. Making it three Grande Punto Abarth S2000s out of the first four Super 2000 cars home were Michele Tagliani/Benedetta Pericotti in ninth place, while Alessio Pisi/Fulvio Florean were next up, rounding out the top ten overall.