Raikkonen crashes out of Rally Mexico

Washed up ex-F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen has crashed out of Rally Mexico. Raikkonen, who swapped F1 for rallying when Fernando Alonso replaced him at Ferrari, rolled his Citroen C4 six times on the final gravel stage of day one. Both Raikkonen and his co-driver Kaj Linstrom were unharmed, but the car was destroyed in the accident and he was forced to retire.

He finished 30th in Rally Sweden last month after a number of mistakes dropped him well down the order. He was also out of contention before his big accident in Mexico, but showed real potential on an asphalt stage when he set the fifth fastest time.

After losing more than half an hour with an electrical problem on today's second stage, Raikkonen went on to set an eighth, a seventh, and a fifth fastest time: his highest-ever overall stage result in his short World Championship career.

But it all went wrong on the final proper stage of the day, SS7, when the Finn rolled into retirement virtually within sight of the finish line. With his Citroen C4 too badly damaged to continue, Kimi’s Rally Mexico is over.

The 2007 Formula 1 World Champion said: “It was very unlucky: the car just slid wide at the end of the stage in a slippery braking area, so we clipped the side of the road and rolled a few times. I had hoped for some good things from this rally, but this was only my seventh event and I am still learning. It’s normal that when you are learning anything you can get caught out by something and this is what happened to me today.

"My biggest disappointment is that we’re not able to continue, as I wanted to have as much time in the car as I could. I had a really good feeling earlier and I wanted to push to see what we could do. I’m sure we will come back stronger at our next event though, and while today was disappointing, I’m really enjoying my rally adventure."

He will now have to wait until early April for another chance to prove his talent at the next round of the WRC in Jordan.