Thursday March 1st, 2001

Young Finnish rookie Kimi Raikkonen is apparently an extreme sports fanatic, as he demonstrated on Wednesday when he switched the cockpit of his Sauber for another kind:­ the cockpit of one of the famous RAAF Roulettes aircraft.

The 21-year old Finn, who will make his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix next Sunday, got a ride in the Pilatus PC9 aircraft.

The man in charge for Raikkonen's flight over the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit was the leader of the Roulettes, Squadron-Leader Sean Bellenger.

For display manoeuvre purposes the Pilatus, capable of 770 km/h, trims its top speed back to 450 km/h ­ about a third faster than Raikkonen's Sauber will be travelling on the ground over the Qantas Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Raikkonen had his feet back on the ground later in the morning, but not for long.

The intrepid young Finn was later at the Grand Prix circuit itself to go freestyle motocross jumping with Queenslander Jonathan Porter.

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(03-11-2005): Australian GP Paddock Gossip (03-09-2005): Greece Finds Site for Formula One Track (03-09-2005): Red Bull Set to Get Honda Engines in 2006 (03-08-2005): Schumacher in Line for Sporting Oscars (03-07-2005): Daily Grapevine Sunday Analysis - Australia

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