Sweden Stages FIVE, SIX AND SEVEN
author: Leon Botha
In stage 5 Hirvonen beat the opposition but was very worried that he may have been caught out or rather outmaneuvered by Sébastien Loeb.
He said that he tapped off after realising that he was leading the stage by too far and still won it. He then saw his rally life flash before his eyes when he realised that Loeb may have decided to save his tyres because of the bad condition of the road - while he did not think that he may run out of rubber or rather studs before he got back to service after Stage 7!
Petter Solberg went off, was caught and passed by Mathew Wilson who then in turn went off near the end only to be rear ended by Petter Solberg. The Wilson car is apparently the worse for wear although Mathew still gained one position.
In Stage Six Latvala clocked his first winning time.
In this stage however both Marcus Grönholm and Kimi Raikkonen got stuck in snow banks. Gronholm lost 12 minutes and Raikkonen 25!
Gronholm also had to stop later in the stage and battled to get going again. He is in 33rd position and Raikkonen is in 50th.
Sebastien Loeb set the second fastest time, and moved up to second overall, but said the drive had not been a smooth one: "The surface is extremely hard and rough. There were lot of impacts under the car," he explained.
Dani Sordo slipped to third after setting the fourth fastest time. The Spaniard was 6.5sec slower than Latvala and arrived at the stop control concerned that his car had seemed down on power for the final two kilometres.
Mikko Hirvonen held his rally leading position, albeit by a slimmer margin of 5.1sec, and seemed relaxed about the state of his tyres. "They don't seem too bad for the moment," he said.
In Stage 7 Hirvonen won, Loeb came second but the most interesting part was that Marcus Grönholm suddenly posted fourth fastest time!
The situation after SS7 is:
|
1
|
Mikko HIRVONEN
|
06:27.8
|
0
|
0
|
|
2
|
Sébastien LOEB
|
06:36.2
|
8.4
|
8.4
|
|
3
|
Dani SORDO
|
06:40.0
|
3.8
|
12.2
|
|
4
|
Jari-Matti LATVALA
|
06:59.4
|
19.4
|
31.6
|
|
5
|
Sébastien OGIER
|
07:38.0
|
38.6
|
+1:10.2
|
|
6
|
Henning SOLBERG
|
08:13.8
|
35.8
|
+1:46.0
|
|
7
|
Matthew WILSON
|
09:45.4
|
+1:31.6
|
+3:17.6
|
|
8
|
Mads ÖSTBERG
|
09:45.7
|
0.3
|
+3:17.9
|
|
9
|
Janne TUOHINO
|
11:36.8
|
+1:51.1
|
+5:09.0
|
|
10
|
Martin PROKOP
|
12:01.1
|
24.3
|
+5:33.3
|
|
11
|
Petter SOLBERG
|
13:13.2
|
+1:12.1
|
+6:45.4
|
|
12
|
Patrik SANDELL
|
13:23.1
|
9.9
|
+6:55.3
|
|
13
|
Khalid AL QASSIMI
|
13:39.2
|
16.1
|
+7:11.4
|
|
14
|
Peter jr. VAN MERKSTEIJN
|
13:43.3
|
4.1
|
+7:15.5
|
|
15
|
Bernardo SOUSA
|
13:50.5
|
7.2
|
+7:22.7
|
|
16
|
Eyvind BRYNILDSEN
|
14:42.6
|
52.1
|
+8:14.8
|
|
17
|
Marcus GRÖNHOLM
|
20:06.2
|
+5:23.6
|
+13:38.4
|
|
18
|
Peter VAN MERKSTEIJN
|
20:22.8
|
16.6
|
+13:55.0
|
|
19
|
Gianluca LINARI
|
30:51.9
|
+10:29.1
|
+24:24.1
|
|
20
|
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN
|
36:58.7
|
+6:06.8
|
+30:30.9
|
|
Hirvonen takes over the lead in Sweden in SS5.
More soon...
|
1
|
Mikko HIRVONEN
|
45:35.0
|
0
|
0
|
|
2
|
Dani SORDO
|
45:41.3
|
6.3
|
6.3
|
|
3
|
Sébastien LOEB
|
45:41.7
|
0.4
|
6.7
|
|
4
|
Jari-Matti LATVALA
|
46:03.0
|
21.3
|
28
|
|
5
|
Sébastien OGIER
|
46:22.2
|
19.2
|
47.2
|
|
6
|
Marcus GRÖNHOLM
|
46:41.0
|
18.8
|
+1:06.0
|
|
7
|
Henning SOLBERG
|
46:52.3
|
11.3
|
+1:17.3
|
|
8
|
Matthew WILSON
|
47:51.8
|
59.5
|
+2:16.8
|
|
9
|
Mads ÖSTBERG
|
48:11.7
|
19.9
|
+2:36.7
|
|
10
|
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN
|
48:28.7
|
17
|
+2:53.7
|
|
SS4
Hirvonen wins SS4 and moves into second spot but he gained only 0.4 of a second on Sébastien Loeb.
Mads Ostberg in Subaru moved into 7th spot overall pushing back both the Solberg brothers.
Henning is leading Petter by half second.
Latvala, Ogier and Gronholm are still steady in 4th to 6th positions.
Wilson and Raikkonen still 10th and 11th.
More soon....
SS3
SS3 Loeb takes another win with team mate Sordo again second fastest. Hirvonen 3rd but another 2.8s off the mark.
Latvala managed 4th, but 5s off the pace.
Loeb now leading by 1.8 from Sordo and 4.5 from Hirvonen.
4. Latvala+11.9; 5.Ogier+24.4; 6.Gronholm+29.9; 7. Henning Solberg+36.7; 8. Petter Solberg+36.7. Petter is leading the private teams.
Mads Ostberg makes up 9th + 41.4 with Mathew Wilson in 10th +73.1 and Kimi Raikkonen in 11th.
SS2
|
|
Sebastien Loeb
|
Sébastien Loeb took an early lead in SS2 of Rally Sweden pushing team-mate Dani Sordo back into second spot.
Mikko Hirvonen did not have the right pace yet and was second quickest through the stage 1,7s slower than Sébastien.
Sordo was 3rd fastest and Latvala fourth.
Sébastien Ogier was fifth quickest with Petter Solberg hard on his heals. Petter moved from 44th to 9th! He said he was still cautious and did not want to take any chances after last nights balls up.
Kimi Raikkonen managed only 12th fastest after being held up by BP Ford Abu Dhabi Team driver Khalid Al Qassimi who went off into the snow and rejoined right in front of Kimi.
Marcus Gronholm said that he was still battling to fiond the right pace - he said he was still braking too early and not going as well as he thought he should.
The overall positions after SS2 is as follows:
|
1
|
Sébastien LOEB
|
13:07.4
|
0
|
0
|
|
2
|
Dani SORDO
|
13:08.4
|
1
|
1
|
|
3
|
Mikko HIRVONEN
|
13:09.1
|
0.7
|
1.7
|
|
4
|
Jari-Matti LATVALA
|
13:11.5
|
2.4
|
4.1
|
|
5
|
Sébastien OGIER
|
13:19.3
|
7.8
|
11.9
|
|
6
|
Marcus GRÖNHOLM
|
13:23.4
|
4.1
|
16
|
|
7
|
Mads ÖSTBERG
|
13:27.1
|
3.7
|
19.7
|
|
8
|
Henning SOLBERG
|
13:28.4
|
1.3
|
21
|
|
9
|
Petter SOLBERG
|
13:35.8
|
7.4
|
28.4
|
|
10
|
Matthew WILSON
|
13:42.8
|
7
|
35.4
|
|
|
|
