A casually-clothed Kimi Raikkonen, who will drive for Ferrari in 2007, made a surprise appearance on day two of the Jerez test on Thursday.
The Finn, who is still under contract to McLaren and therefore will not test until the new year, told reporters at the southern Spanish venue that he was not permitted to speak at length to the press due to the contractual situation.
However, 27-year-old Raikkonen watched proceedings from the back of the garage and followed Ferrari’s radio traffic by wearing unbranded headphones. He was accompanied by his trainer, Mark Arnall, who has also switched from McLaren and said that the pair did not plan to stay in Jerez on Friday.
Kimi – wearing blue jeans, a black jacket and brown beanie – spoke for ten minutes with 2007 teammate Felipe Massa and sat in on an engineers’ briefing.
He was also spotted strolling down to the McLaren garage, where he chatted with old friends.
A Ferrari spokesman said: “(Kimi) was there just to learn a bit about how the team works.”
At the overcast venue, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets, but the GP2 champion ended his day early after running off the track and damaging his silver McLaren.
A team statement read: “The test team have repaired Lewis’ car to enable him to continue running tomorrow.”
Rain is forecast for Friday.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
