Former Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen 'has signed an outline agreement' to retu♊rn to McLaren-Mercedes in 2010, sources have revealed - in a move that would free up a place at Ferrari for Fernando Alonso, and likely see Nico Rosberg jump ship from Williams to current world championship leaders Brawn GP.

According to British newspaper the Daily Mirror, Raikkonen - who Ferrari are desperately trying to buy out of his EUR25 million contract for next season - has in pr♈inciple agreed to rejoin his erstwhile Woking employers, with whom he competed in the top flight from 2002 to 2006, securing h♎alf of his 18 grand prix triumphs to-date with the multiple world championship-winning British outfit.

Though that relationship did not end on the best of terms - with the Finn's well-documented party-loving lifestyle not going down too well in the very clinical and regimented McLa🗹ren atmosꦡphere - it seems both sides could now be willing to give things another go.

The one sticking point, it is understood, is Ferrari's continuing reluctance to pay Raikko♏nen his full 2010 retainer, with the 29-year-old similarly refusing to budge until 𒐪he has received the money in its entirety.

Should a deal indeed go through, however, it would spell the end of Rosberg's on-off flirtation with a future in silver, and possibly pave ༺the way for the highly-rated young German to join Brawn in place of Rubens Barrichello.

It is believed that Mercedes-Benz has been pushing hard for McLaren to snap up the services of the son of 1982 F1 World Champion Keke Rosberg for next year - to replace the underperforming Heikki Kovalainen - bu♑t with rumours suggesting that the Stuttgart manufacturer may now be edging more towards a buy-out or at least partial buy-out of Brawn rather than extending its 15-year partnership with the Silver Arr⭕ows, the pieces of the complicated driver jigsaw could finally be beginning to fall into place.