Prior to his first WRC event in Sweden, Raikkonen entered the Arctic Rally Lapland in order to get used to the handling of his C4 on snow and ice. There, he discovered how difficult it was to keep a WRC car on the road. He lost over 30 minutes after going off, bulldozing down a tree in the process and getting stuck in a snowbank. But he also got to know another characteristic of rallying events: spectators on the sides of the roads to help drivers who run into trouble. Fortunately, a spectator arrived with a big shovel to help Raikkonen and Lindstrom free their car from the snowbank.

He went off in Rally Sweden in a similar way. The Iceman showed some promising pace for someone of his little experience – 1.67 seconds per kilometre slower than the winner – but went off the road in several occasions and got stuck in the snow for half an hour, again. Raikkonen proved though, that he is not afraid of a little physical work, he dug his car out of the snowbank by himself using a small plastic shovel. He seemed to scare more easily of big animals, though. The Finn was the involuntary protagonist of one of the anecdotes of the rally when a rather large moose crossed the road just in front of his car during one of the timed stages, giving him quite a fright. His co-driver had to remind his driver to just focus on the driving. Luckily, both the car and the moose finished the rally unscathed, with Raikkonen in 29th position, 38 minutes 37.2 seconds behind his fellow countryman Mikko Hirvonen, who won the rally.