Sébastien Vs. Sweden

Sébastien Loeb will be hoping to start the 2010 season with a win in Sweden. The last true winter rally was Norway, the second round of the 2009 season, which Loeb won by 9.8 seconds.

However it seems that this impressive snow performance hasn’t completely given him the belief he can win on the weekend.

Speaking to the official WRC website Loeb said:

“It looks like the conditions are going to be difficult. You just have to stay on the road, which isn’t that easy when I think back to the 2008 rally… I don’t think I’m the favourite as the Finns will be much more at home than me.”

Loeb has every reason to worry. In 2008, the last time Sweden was on the calendar, he didn’t even make it to the end of the first leg. Although he was celebrating his 100th WRC start, a roll early in stage three left him with engine problems and damage that a 15-minute remote service couldn’t fix adequately.

His dire weekend however was topped off by a nice roadside chat with the Swedish police. It seems even WRC drivers are not exempt from the laws covering speed on public roads between stages!

The weekend was eventually won (impressively I might add) by Jari-Matti Latvala who was followed home by teammate Mikko Hirvonen. With both of these drivers competing this year it seems your smart money would be on one of Ford’s Finns to take it.

[You can read my rally sweden preview here: https://shakedownandstage.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/rally-sweden-preview/%5D

Quote and picture from http://www.wrc.com