30 Oct 12

Ice work if
you can get it

Fans of the coolest man in rallying - we're talking about the Iceman of course - will have to wait a little longer before Kimi Raikkonen heads back to the stages.

After two years in the FIA World Rally Championship, the flying Finn returned to Formula One at the beginning of this year: the series in which he famously won the world title back in 2007.

But while Kimi says the WRC is unfinished business - and like the Terminator, he’ll definitely be back - it won’t be in 2013, because he has just signed again for the Lotus team for another F1 season.

“I think my return to Formula One has gone pretty well,” said Raikkonen, who is currently third in the drivers’ championship with six podiums after a two-year break. “I think there were a few people who had doubts about how I would perform after being away for a while. I may have been doing something different with rallying, but after returning to Formula One I immediately felt fit enough - and fast enough - to start racing again.”

Raikkonen, who switched to the WRC with Red Bull backing in 2010, looked into the possibility of a one-off outing on Neste Oil Rally Finland this year, but was told by his Lotus bosses before the Monaco Grand Prix that he wouldn’t be allowed to take part.