Kimi Raikkonen’s heroic efforts at the wheel of a Grande Punto Abarth on the Rally Finland ended late this afternoon as he dramatically rolled out on the final stage, having suffered problems with the car all day. The departure of Raikkonen this afternoon means Anton Alén alone to carry Scorpion honour on his youthful shoulders into the final day tomorrow; his advantage over the third placed runner has extended tonight to 2 minutes and 17 seconds. When he rolled out of the event, Raikkonen was sitting in a Group N podium position and increasing his advantage to the next driver, Patrik Flodin.

Kimi Raikkonen’s heroic efforts at the wheel of a Grande Punto Abarth on the Rally Finland ended late this afternoon as he dramatically rolled out on the final stage, having suffered problems with the car all day. His speed and ability to quickly get to grips with a rally car on his first time on gravel and the use of complex pace notes on the world stage had already impressed the rally fraternity and if he chooses to pursue a future career in the sport he would be assured interest from top teams. When he rolled out of the event, Raikkonen was sitting in a Group N podium position and increasing his advantage to the next driver, Patrik Flodin.

Today had started very well for Raikkonen, who held fourth place in Group N overnight and 17th place overall after an excellent run through yesterday’s nine opening stages. A respectable time on the first stage of the second leg (SS11) early this morning kept the Finn in fourth place and then on SS12 Janne Tuohino (Peugeot 207 S2000) suffered clutch problems which elevated the Ferrari Formula 1 driver into the Group N podium positions.

However, Raikkonen was at this point driving with care as the car had a number of issues that the Tommi Makinen Racing mechanics wanted to rectify at the day’s first scheduled service. Through SS13 the Finn posted another careful time to make it into the service park safely, but losing 6.9 seconds to Patrik Flodin allowed the Subaru Impreza to squeeze past into third. Raikkonen’s co-driver Kaj Lindstrom explained: "In the first service today we had hoped to make some changes to the car after the super special and change a few parts, but time was a bit too tight so we couldn’t do everything. Because of this the car wasn’t 100 per cent this morning and when we got back for this service we found a small problem – so we have to fit a new gearbox. I hope it will be okay but we might take a time penalty if we go over time. The most important thing is to get the car right so Kimi feels comfortable. So far I’ve been pleased with his driving. It’s been a surprise for a lot of the spectators I think.” The car eventually made it out of the service park with incurring any time penalties.

Meanwhile Alén was still holding second in Group N and fourteenth overall in his Tommi Mäkinen Racing-run Grande Punto Abarth while Juho Hanninen (Skoda Fabia S2000) continued to comfortably lead the category, an advantage he had held since the start. Immediately into SS14 Raikkonen was back into the groove, going 9.3 seconds faster than Flodin to retake third spot and posting a time just 2.3 seconds adrift of Alén. Raikkonen and Flodin traded times on SS15 and SS16 as the competitors completed the day’s second run of the trio of stages but the Finn was now reporting suspension problems and driving in lower gears to preserve the engine which was causing much concern. “We have big problems with the engine, there’s no power,” explained Raikkonen. “Also we broke the front suspension when we went too much over a jump and that means we have no damping. We’ll try and get the suspension fixed in service but unfortunately I don’t think we can do much for the engine. We’ll see how long it goes for.” 

The car made it back to Jyvaskyla, where Lindstrom gave a frank mechanical update before checking into the Tommi Makinen Racing service area. “The engine is about to go,” he said. “There’s a lack of power and hardly any torque, so we have to use the smaller gears in the corners, that’s the biggest problem. It’s not game over just yet, though. There’s not much they can do for the engine, we just have to hope it lasts, but there are other jobs to do. We had a big jump in Himos (SS15) and broke the dampers and the sump guard. Hopefully we can get out on the final three stages today, we’re looking forward to them.”

Into the last three stages of the day and on the first of these, SS17 Urria, a legendary test which boasts the biggest jump in Finland, Raikkonen simply defied his car problems, which included a lack of compression in one of its cylinders, to post the second fastest Group N time, beating his close rival for the final podium step, Flodin, by 3.1 seconds and extending his advantage over the Subaru driver to 8.7 seconds. He also bested Alén by 3.9 seconds, the Abarth factory driver losing time with a small off. Seemingly oblivious to his ailing car, Raikkonen went second fastest again for the second consecutive stage (SS18), posting a time that was just 2.3 seconds behind that set by the runaway Group N leader Hanninen, and 0.8 seconds quicker than Alén. Importantly it was 6.4 faster than Flodin managed and this allowed the F1 star to open out a 15.1 second cushion over his rival for the final podium slot as the rally went into the final stage of the day.

However it all went completely wrong for the Finn on that last stage (SS19 Vaarinmaja) with a big multiple roll abruptly ending what had turned out to be a stunning performance. He went off at the same spot that had just accounted for Adapta Subaru team driver Mads Ostberg, who crashed his Subaru Impreza WRC off the road and into a ditch. Ostberg and his co-driver Jonas Andersson were uninjured. Ostberg was seventh before the crash. When Raikkonen rolled several times at that point he narrowly missed Ostberg’s damaged car. "I saw Kimi's car in the same place that Mads Ostberg went off and a lot of spectators were helping," said Flodin who had been locked in a battle with Raikkonen all day. "I have had a really good day, pushing a lot. The only complaint is that I am not happy with my times. It is a real shame that Kimi has gone off, it was a nice feeling to be rallying against him."

Instead it is left to Alén alone to carry Scorpion honour on his youthful shoulders into the final day, and with the second quickest time on SS19 he increases his advantage over the third placed runner tonight (which is now Flodin after Raikkonen’s departure from the fray) to 2 minutes and 17 seconds, although the Abarth driver is more than two and a half minutes behind Hanninen and would need the Skoda driver to hit problems on the final fours stages tomorrow to have any hope of snatching an unlikely class victory. "We are trying to make it through to tomorrow," said Alén said simply at the end of the day.