From Mexico, the WRC family moved on Jordan. Raikkonen’s bosses expressed their concern before this rally about the difficulties it might present for the Finnish driver. The Jordan Rally is known for its high technical difficulty, it was not the best rally for a driver with so little rallying experience as Raikkonen had at the time. However, this ended up being the rally where Raikkonen got his first points in the WRC championship. He finished 8th, 12 minutes 31.0 seconds behind the winner Sebastien Loeb and was not involved in any remarkable drama; he just drove nice and steady – and slow, 2.17 seconds per kilometre slower than Loeb – to the finish line. The Iceman was happy with his first four points in the championship after the rally.

Next stop in the championship gave Raikkonen his best finish in his entire WRC career. He finished the Rally of Turkey in 5th, 6 minutes 44.3 seconds behind Loeb, who won this event. Turkey was a new rally in the calendar. For the first time in the season, Raikkonen was not disadvantaged over the other WRC regulars because of his lack of knowledge of the stages. In this case, the difference in pace to the “big boys” could only be attributed to the lack of rallying experience as well as with the pacenotes and, of course, with the innate different in pace with the fastest guys, which is an unknown quantity. Remarkably, as the previous knowledge of the stages was dropped from the equation, the difference reduced to 1.27 seconds per kilometre from the 2.17 seconds per kilometre of the Jordan Rally. Looking closely at the stage times of the Finnish driver during Rally of Turkey, it is also quite easy to notice one of the characteristics of Raikkonen’s driving style during the two seasons he has been competing in the WRC: his pace, compared to the fastest drivers, was better the second time through the stages than on the first run (see graph). This is usually read as an indication Raikkonen’s lack of confidence on his pacenotes during the first run.