Raikkonen wins (in the snow)

[zenvision]

Kimi Raikkonen finished his preparations for the new Formula One season in perfect style at the weekend - with victory in a snowmobiling race.

While some of his rivals flew out to Australia to get acclimatized to the time zone and climate, Raikkonen demonstrated his passion for speed by winning the 24-kilometre Enduro Sprint event at the Kopparberg King race in Finland.

Interestingly Raikkonen entered his number 59 Lynx MaMo under the name of 'James Hunt', before his proper name was put on the results sheet.

The reason for entering with Hunt's identity is not known, but it could have been to minimize public interest before the event.

Raikkonen completed the 24km course in 19minutes 38.24 seconds – well clear of second place Pasi Hietalo on a Lynx P-SMK, who finished it in 19m59.68s.

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This guy seems to be quick in any machinery he's given, seems like a throwback to the old days with drivers hopping in different cars and different competition. Would be nice to see more drivers doing so, and nicer being shown on tv especially to kill some of season boredom.

[waynes]

i love Kimi, although i have a strange feeling he's going to struggle at first to keep with Massa

[pRo]

While that is all true, he did win the enduro event, he didn't do that good overall. He was struggling for the 15th position in the finals, but in the end he DNF.

[zenvision]

Searching for some pictures, I have to say that Kimi was crazy to go racing a week before the grand prix. We could have had another montoya-like tennis accident that would have ruined him not only the year but also possibly his status in ferrari.

[saam]

kimi seems like a cool dude man

in terms of massa and kimi racing together, i hope that the team keeps the fastest guy out there instead of prefering to make a number one driver.

IMO i think massa is the number one driver for farrari and alonso is number one for mclaren. As well all seen the melboune race, i hope that all drivers can race and not be held up by team orders,

this in turn is going to be hard to police....

[DaveKillens]

Good for him, I like someone with the passion to tear the track up, to have that spirit of racing. Although it must have given Todt an ulcer when he learned of it. I doubt anyone at Ferrari would have approved, though. But heaven forbid if it had been Ron Dennis and McLaren.
On a side note, my all time favorite, Gilles Villeneuve was heavily involved and successful at snowmobiles.