Rally Sweden Day 3

New season, new challenges, new drivers, new cars. Rally Sweden marked the start of a brand new era in the World Rally Championship. Gone are the the days of the C4 and Focus as this weekend we welcomed the DS3 and Fiesta in to the arena, with the Mini Countryman arriving later this year.

And with the excitement of days one and two, day three looked to be just as promising – thankfully it didn’t let us down. Mikko Hirvonen was first to take to the roads. While many thought this road sweeping position would hinder him, overnight plummeting temperatures seemed to help him find the speed somewhere as he set the fastest time in all three of the morning’s stages, enough to take the rally win. Mads Østberg followed him closely with top three finishes in 5 out of the 6 stages. Ultimately though this wasn’t enough to fully challenge Hirvonen but a hugely successful debut with the Stobart M-Sport WRT gaining him his first podium.

Jari-Matti Latvala finished the day strongly making his way up to the final podium position. Securing a Ford 1-2-3.

By far the most exciting aspect of the day was the introduction of the live Power Stage. Held on the short 4.16km Gustavsfors stage this was to be broadcast live around the world. Run in reverse rally order, Monster’s Ken Block was the first to tackle the stage – although finishing almost 17minutes off the pace overall Block, who has never driven using studded snow-tyres, was extremely ‘stoked’ to have made it to the end of Rally Sweden… almost incident free.

However the biggest shock of the day came in the shape of Petter Solberg. Or should that be Chris Patterson? After a quick set of stage times on Friday, Solberg was caught using that speed on a public road between stages. This run in with the Swedish police left him with only a 48hr temporary license which, unfortunately for him, expired just before the live Power Stage. But not to fear co-driver Patterson was on hand to take the reigns and complete the rally. Of course this time was well off the pace, in fact it was last, but considering he is the co-driver and has never driven the DS3 this was an incredible sight to behold. A huge smile at stage end and a well deserved 5th place overall for the Petter Solberg WRT.

Taking home the extra points from the Power Stage were Sébastien Ogier (who has had a solid rally with very few mistakes and some stunning stage times), Sébastien Loeb (although he did have to push his car away from the finish line) and Jari-Matti Latvala (who managed to tear off goodness knows how many bumpers and still set a blisteringly fast pace at times). Each take home 3,2 and 1 points respectively.

Now the WRC circus moves to Mexico – with much warmer weather guaranteed. If Sweden is anything to go by we’re in for one of the most cracking years in recent memory.

Rally Sweden Day 2

Sébastien Loeb fought to reduce his deficit during day two of Rally Sweden, after leg one left him over two and a half minutes off the pace. Not having to clear the roads for others Loeb managed 4 stage wins however he was still dogged with problems throughout the day. An excursion in a snow bank on SS9 left him with visual damage to the front right of his DS3; consequently damaging his tyre. After a quick change Loeb suffered yet another puncture in SS10 forcing him to use the wheel damaged from earlier for the last stage of the morning’s loop.

After a number of strong finishes on Friday Stobart’s Henning Solberg had a spectacular roll on the Saturday’s opening stage which put paid to his rally, even though he did eventually manage to finish the stage. Trust Henning to find the most flamboyant way to exit the rally – a broken roll bar means that that’s the last we shall see of him in Sweden. Thankfully both Solberg and co-driver Ilka Minor were unhurt in the accident.

Younger brother Petter Solberg was desperately looking to get his own season off to a flying start with a podium however after checking in late at time control all his hard work seemed the be undone. The Norwegian was understandably furious and while he will be contesting the decision his anger helped him to rack up three stage wins.

While Østberg was cleaning the road ahead Mikko Hirvonen was making the most of the opportunity and shot past clinching the rally lead on SS11.

As the stages started to rut one driver seemed to be in his element, Jari-Matti Latvala who closed the gap on the front runners ensuring that going into the final day there are 5 drivers all with a shot at the win – and only 15.8seconds separating them.

Without a doubt the shock of the day has got to be Kimi Räikkönen who has steadily been improving his pace placing him 7^th going into the final day of the rally. He’s been putting in times equal, and on occasion, fast than the likes of Hirvonen and Solberg.

Sunday’s leg will include the new to 2011 Power Stage which will be broadcast live on TV (ESPN in the UK). It will also be one of the most exciting days Rally Sweden has seen for quite some time.

The standings going into day three are as follows:

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	2:34:56.1	0.0	0.0
2.	6	M. ØSTBERG	M	2:35:03.5	+7.4	+7.4
3.	11	P. SOLBERG		2:35:05.0	+1.5	+8.9
4.	4	J. LATVALA	M	2:35:07.0	+2.0	+10.9
5.	2	S. OGIER	M	2:35:11.9	+4.9	+15.8
6.	1	S. LOEB	M	2:36:38.2	+1:26.3	+1:42.1
7.	8	K. RÄIKKONEN	M	2:40:01.6	+3:23.4	+5:05.5
8.	16	P. ANDERSSON		2:40:26.8	+25.2	+5:30.7
9.	18	P. SANDELL		2:42:40.9	+2:14.1	+7:44.8
10.	15	M. WILSON		2:42:42.3	+1.4	+7:46.2

 

Rally Sweden Day 1

A stunning, if somewhat unexpected, drive from Norwegian Mads Østberg left the M-Sport Stobart Ford WRT with a record on their hands during leg 1 – for the first time the team were leading a rally at the end of the days running. And while day one was going great for Østberg others were finding the heavily falling snow challenging.

The biggest casualty being current world champion Sébastien Loeb who, fulfilling his usual role of road sweeper, was loosing time left, right and centre in these difficult conditions. Further time was subsequently haemorrhaged during SS7 when he sustained a puncture.

P.G Andersson won the opening stage on Thursday night – a quick 1.9km blast through the Karlstad Super Special Stage. It was only thanks to fan donations that the Swede was able to compete in this his home event. Having secured an entry to the event, sponsorship was thin on the ground but after fans learned of his plight they donated generously giving him the chance to compete this weekend. In an effort to pay them back P.G was likely a little too over exuberant, and on Friday’s opening stage as he rolled his Ford Fiesta – he unluckily suffered a puncture later that morning too. However two stage wins (one tied with Østberg) helped him to regain some lost time.

Rally leader Østberg was steadily pulling out a lead over everybody else – one of the few runners who appeared to make no mistakes. He took 3 stages wins (one tied with the aforementioned PG) and later stated to reporters, ‘I don’t know why everyone else is driving so slowly.’

Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala took stage wins in SS6 and SS7 respectively.

Ken Block took away the Colin’s Crest award after an amazing jump of 39metres, told of his achievement he said, ‘I’ve sucked everywhere else so at least I was good there!’

After leg on the results were as follows:

Pos	No	Driver		Time	Diff Prev	Diff 1st
1.	6	M. ØSTBERG	M	1:17:21.2	0.0	0.0
2.	3	M. HIRVONEN	M	1:17:36.0	+14.8	+14.8
3.	11	P. SOLBERG		1:18:18.6	+42.6	+57.4
4.	4	J. LATVALA	M	1:18:31.2	+12.6	+1:10.0
5.	5	H. SOLBERG	M	1:18:41.5	+10.3	+1:20.3
6.	2	S. OGIER	M	1:18:42.8	+1.3	+1:21.6
7.	18	P. SANDELL		1:19:56.3	+1:13.5	+2:35.1
8.	20	E. BRYNILDSEN		1:20:04.7	+8.4	+2:43.5
9.	1	S. LOEB	M	1:20:09.6	+4.9	+2:48.4
10.	10	K. AL QASSIMI		1:21:33.6	+1:24.0	+4:12.4

Table from http://www.wrc.com