Kimi Raikkonen is aiming to build on his promising WRC performance on asphalt to enjoy a stronger outing on Rallye Deutschland this week.
The Finn showed decent pace in his first asphalt outing in Bulgaria, where he was running in fifth position before he crashed out. Although the German rally will be another new challenge for the Citroen driver, Raikkonen is eager to continue with his learning process. The 2007 F1 World Champion admitted his main priority will be to reach the finish.
"I don't know exactly what the German stages will be like, but I know that they will be very different than Bulgaria," said Raikkonen. "In racing, the surface of one circuit is not massively different from the surface of another, although there are some small changes. In rallying, the difference is huge on every event.
"There is so much variety on a rally: every kilometer and every corner is different. That's why experience is so important in this sport. So I just need to keep on building up my knowledge: I will try my best in Germany but I really need to make sure that I am there at the finish so that I can learn all about this event. Everyone tells me that the stages are quite complicated, so we will have to be careful, especially if it is raining."
Co-driver Kaj Lindstrom, who has competed in Rally Germany twice before, conceded the event is likely to be a difficult one.
"This is only going to be Kimi's second World Championship asphalt rally, and just his ninth WRC event," he said. "Germany is not going to be an easy one, but Bulgaria was very good for us and we continued making progress in Finland. I'm really pleased by the way that Kimi has come so far in an extremely short space of time: nobody has rallied at this level before with so little experience, and that's a great achievement.
"For me, the most important thing in Germany is that we continue learning, work hard on our pace notes, and try to get a solid result. Like Kimi said, it's all about getting the experience."