Kimi Raikkonen has finally finished first in a rally, presumably finally permitting the Finn to hold his head up high in his home country, where rallying is venerated even above Vodka.
Despite showing plenty of pace, the former F1 champ has yet to win a WRC round - and his duck is still unbroken, as victory has come for him in the six-stage Rally Vosgien, part of the French National Championship.
Kimi, driving his usual WRC Citroen C4, beat second-placed Quentin Gilbert by more than three minutes.
That's not quite as impressive as it sounds, mind; Gilbert's steed was a 2wd Renault Clio Maxi, hardly a straight fight.
To be fair to Raikkonen, the rally was actually more of a test for the Strasbourg-based Rally of France, as the Citroen Junior team has used up all of its official test days for the season.
"This was a good preparation for the Rally of France," Raikkonen told Autosport. "From what I am told, the roads on this event were fairly representative of what we will see on the next WRC round, so I am happy. It's also good to get back into driving the car on asphalt - that's very useful as well."
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