Kimi Raikkonen completed the opening day of the Rally Finland with a hugely impressive performance in his Grande Punto Abarth S2000 turning in a series of very fast stage times that have moved the Ferrari F1 driver up the leaderboard to fourth place in GpN.

Kimi Raikkonen completed the opening day of the Rally Finland with a hugely impressive performance in his Grande Punto Abarth S2000 turning in a series of very fast stage times that have moved the Ferrari Formula 1 driver up the leaderboard to fourth place in GpN. The rally this weekend marks his debut in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and is also the first time Raikkonen has competed on a gravel surface event.

On the last forest stage of the day (SS9) yesterday the Finnish national hero was just 3.4 seconds slower than Intercontinental Rally Challenge winner this year and GpN class leader Juho Hanninen (Skoda Fabia S2000) who also won the P-WRC class on this rally last year, and it means Raikkonen has climbed into 17th place overall as well as fourth in class.

After showing an encouraging pace on Friday morning, as he familiarised himself with the day's loop of four stages and grappled to get used to using pace notes, Raikkonen felt confident enough to increase his speed on the afternoon repeat of the loop of stages. On the last forest stage of the day, the 13 km Palsankyla (SS9), the Finn was faster than rising star Anton Alén, who is also driving a Tommi Mäkinen Racing-run Grand Punto Abarth S2000.

Before tackling the day-closing Superspecial last night, Raikkonen said he was enjoying his rally so far. "We are quick second time through and the car is performing really well. The notes are the biggest challenge in this rally because you must have total faith in them. I am pleased with my performance,” he said. Alén, who had moved up to second in GpN commented: "My bumper is hanging off and there seems to be a problem with the differential but apart from that it seems to be ok."

Both Abarth-mounted drivers safely negotiated the Superspecial to roll into parc ferme last night in second and fourth place in GpN. Hanninen (1:09.55.0) is the GpN class leader at the end of the first full day of action in Finland with Alén (1:10.38.8) sitting 43.8 seconds back in second place. In third is Janne Tuohino (Peugeot 207 S2000) who is a further 22.8 seconds behind the Abarth driver, while 15.8 seconds further down the road is Raikkonen (1:11.17.4). "I am enjoying this rally so far," Raikkonen reported last night. "We are quick second time through and the car is performing really well. The notes are the biggest challenge in this rally because you must have total faith in them. I am pleased with my performance." Alén, who is also in fifteenth place overall as well as second in GpN, was upbeat last night despite issues with the car. "It's been a good day but in the afternoon the handling of the car was not ideal, so this is something that we will look at in preparation for the second day, maybe by working with the differential," said the 25-year-old Finnish son of rally legend Markku. "There is a bit of a gap to the leading car in the class but we are certainly not giving up yet; anything is still possible. Tomorrow we are going to try hard once more and hopefully we are still close enough to make a difference if things go well for us."

A marathon 166.87 competitive kilometres (almost half the rally's competitive distance) are scheduled for today when the drivers head south-west of host town Jyvaskyla for two loops of stages near the town of Jämsä, before another three tests near Mänttä. Cars will leave the overnight Parc Ferme from 0615 for a 15-minute service and then the 57 km journey to the first of the day's stages. Three stages will be run consecutively and then repeated after a return to Jyvaskyla for a 30-minute service. A further three stages will be run after another 30-minute service. The cars will then return to Jyvaskyla one last time for the day ending 45-minute service from 1945.