RALLY SWEDEN - CAN HIRVONEN HOLD ON TO HIS LEAD?
author: Leon Botha
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen extended their lead in Rally Sweden today after a blistering afternoon performance in the frozen Scandinavian forests. The Finns managed their tyre strategy to perfection on their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car to build a 16.6sec lead with just one day remaining of this first round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila also enjoyed a good afternoon, climbing to third in a similar Focus RS World Rally Car. They will start tomorrow's final leg with a 54.8sec advantage over fourth-placed Dani Sordo.
Today's action comprised two identical loops of four speed tests covering 117.76km, clustered around Hagfors, 90km north of the rally base in Karlstad. Temperatures plunged to a bone-numbing -22ºC under clear skies this morning, but as the sun rose another stunning Scandinavian winter's day unfolded in the Värmland region of central Sweden. The fast and furious action attracted Swedish royalty and HRH Prince Carl Philip visited the team's service park in Hagfors to meet the drivers.
The thrilling battle for supremacy at the head of the leaderboard continued unabated this morning as 29-year-old Hirvonen fought to extend his lead. Such was the intensity of the duel that after the opening loop of 58.88km of flat-out driving in the ice-bound forests, rival Sébastien Loeb cut Hirvonen's 6.2sec overnight advantage by the slender margin of 2.0sec. Hirvonen was fastest on the opening Vargåsen special stage, but the pace of the two protagonists left the battle delicately poised.
The same roads were repeated this afternoon and as the snowy surface deteriorated to expose the gravel beneath, tyre management played a crucial part. Hirvonen fitted new Pirelli Sottozero rubber to the front of his Focus RS World Rally Car before the Sågen test, the second of the loop. He blitzed Loeb by eight seconds and gained a further eight on the following Fredriksberg stage to widen his advantage to 23.0sec. Hirvonen's big attack on the gravel meant his tyres had lost many of the tungsten-tipped studs that bite into the ice ahead of the final test, but at only 1.87km he limited the time loss to 6.4sec to end the day with a significant lead.
"I had a great feeling on the two big stages this afternoon when I took time from Loeb," said Hirvonen. "I had a tyre strategy and it worked but it required great commitment. There was a lot of gravel on the roads and conditions were tricky for the tyres because stud retention was so difficult. My lead is far from comfortable and Loeb will push me very hard tomorrow.
"It's great fun to be involved in such a big fight for the lead. I didn't think first in the start order today would create any problems and it didn't. My only mistake came when I stalled at the start of the final stage this morning but it only cost a couple of seconds," he added.
Latvala endured a puzzling morning but retained fourth. However, he made some minor changes to the set-up on his Focus RS World Rally Car and maintained the pressure on Sordo. It paid off when Sordo firstly spun and then stopped for almost a minute when his car's engine temperature soared, allowing 24-year-old Latvala into a podium position. He set two fastest times during the afternoon.
"The morning wasn't as good as I hoped. It felt like everything was going well but the times weren't as good as the feeling. I tried driving aggressively and I tried driving cautiously, but it didn't come together," said Latvala, who was hampered on the opening test by a misted windscreen caused by a ventilator jamming open in the roof of the car.
"I found my confidence this afternoon and was happier with my performance. I made the front dampers on the car harder and lifted the rear, which helped avoid understeer. It made a big difference and for the first time this weekend I felt like a rally driver and not a taxi driver! The gravel meant it was easy to destroy the tyres and I had to do a lot of thinking about how to look after them," he added.
Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr climbed from 17th to 14th in the team's other Focus RS WRC, the Emirati driver still building confidence in conditions that are alien to him. "I'm enjoying it a little more but conditions were extremely difficult this afternoon," said Al Qassimi.
News from other Ford teams
Stobart M-Sport Ford's Henning Solberg and Ilka Minor retained sixth in their Focus RS WRC while team-mates Matthew Wilson and Scott Martin climbed to seventh. Wilson made improvements to the set-up of his Focus RS WRC at the lunchtime service and moved ahead of Mads Östberg. Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen endured another difficult day in the team's third car. A puncture and then an overshoot into a snow bank cost more than eight minutes, but fastest time on his favourite Sågen test brought a smile to the Finn's face. He lies 29th. The new Ford Fiesta S2000 took advantage of improving conditions to set remarkable first and second fastest times on the final Hagfors Sprint stage in the hands of S-WRC drivers Martin Prokop and Bernardo Sousa.
Tomorrow’s Route
The final leg is the shortest of the rally, but still contains 101.05km of action. After leaving Karlstad at 05.35, drivers again head north to Hagfors before tackling five stages east of the town. Two of the tests will be used twice, either side of a 30 minute service in Hagfors. Drivers then journey back to Karlstad for the finish ceremony at 15.30.
Leaderboard after Day 2
1. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 14min 48.3sec
2. S Loeb/D Elena FRA Citroen C4 2hr 15min 04.9sec
3. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 2hr 15min 39.7sec
4. D Sordo/M Marti ESP Citroen C4 2hr 16min 34.5sec
5. S Ogier/J Ingrassia FRA Citroen C4 2hr 17min 30.4sec
6. H Solberg/I Minor NOR Ford Focus RS 2hr 19min 06.2sec
7. M Wilson/S Martin GBR Ford Focus RS 2hr 20min 32.4sec
8. M Østberg/J Andersson NOR Subaru Impreza 2hr 20min 45.6sec
9. P Solberg/P Mills NOR Citroen C4 2hr 23min 23.5sec
10 P-G Andersson/A Fredriksson SWE Skoda Fabia 2hr 23min 46.4sec
DAY TWO - FRIDAY 12 FEB
It is not really difficult to sum up the proceedings after day One of Rally Sweden.
Petter Solberg was about the first time-casualty when he screwed up on the Super Special stage in Karlstad on Thursday evening.
On Friday morning the first stage greeted the incredible men in their expensive machines with a nice coat of ice - thanks to the fact that the organisers sprayed the stage with water to get this effect - all over it.
The Pirelli studded Sottozero tyres did exactly what they were designed for in the -22° C temperatures. They bit into the ice giving the drivers head-spinning traction in the morning and a few headaches in the afternoon on the second run through the stages when the ice broke up and deep ruts formed while the gravel came through the ice in many places. This of course made "stud-retention" very difficult.
The Ford drivers both had a problem with the suspension and differential setups of their cars and did not like what they felt on the morning stages.
Sébastien Loeb did not find anything wrong with the setup of his car and proved that by quickly establishing winning form! He took wins on Stages 2 and 3 and an early overall lead of 1.8s over team-mate Dani Sordo. The Citroens looked great and a few eyebrows popped up and down in the service park - especially in the Ford camps.
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'Alo - Mikko checking out the situation...
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Then Mikko Hirvonen decided to change the setting back to the 2009 setup and voìlá - stage 4 belonged to him and he moved past Sordo into second spot.
Stage Five - another win for Mikko and he took the overall lead but was worried that he overdid it and may have damaged his tyres. The fact that Sébastien Loeb dropped well back on time told him that the clever little Frenchman decided to try and protect his tyres that had to last for two more stages.
Luckily for him on closer inspection he saw that his tyres were still in fair condition - but still decided to tap off slightly and make sure that he kept his lead into the second day.
In this same stage Petter Solberg went off, was caught and passed by Mathew Wilson who then in turn went off near the end of the stage, stalled his car and was rear-ended by Petter Solberg. The Wilson car was the worse for wear although Mathew still gained one position.
In Stage Six Latvala clocked his first winning time but did some damage to his tyres in the process.
In this stage the drama section belonged to Marcus Grönholm and Kimi Raikkonen who both 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 final stage for Day One was again the Super Special at Karlstad and Loeb won it with Sordo in second spot. Petter Solberg made up this time by posting third fastest time to the delight of his many fans.
The only change during the Super Special in the top 20 positions was Matthew Wilson, who slipped 0.8sec behind Mads Ostberg into eighth place.
One can not but mention Sébastien Ogier after day one. This was his first Rally Sweden and the second time he drove on snow and he is lying 5th overall after day one! That is amazing stuff - so don’t get confused later this year - make sure which Sébastien we are talking about.
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Andersson in the Skoda
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S2000 driver Swedish P-G Andersson has ended day one of Rally Sweden with a clean sweep: eight out of eight stage wins.
Behind Andersson, 59.2s adrift lie the Ford Fiesta S2000's of Janne Tuohino and Martin Prokop.
Despite driving the same Skoda machinery as P-G Andersson, fellow Swede Patrik Sandell hit one problem after another this afternoon, unable to better his fourth position in P-WRC from earlier in the day. SS5 seemed to be going well, until he overshot a junction and couldn’t reverse. Waiting for spectators to help him cost him nearly 30 seconds, and this was only the beginning of his troubles. In SS6 he caught Gronholm and had to sit behind him, losing 10 more seconds and in the next stage he also lost the studs on his tyres. SS8 didn’t prove the turning point he hoped for as he came fifth of seven S-WRC entries. At the end of day 1, Sandell’s confidence is knocked.
In the Production car section there is a hell of a battle between Flodin and Grondal, both in Subaru's.
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Flodin leading the Production car in a Subaru
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Flodin’s early stage winning streak was broken by Grondal who won SS5 and SS6.
Flodin temporarily stole back a stage victory on SS7, but Grondal once again triumphed on the end of day Super Special Stage, taking 2.5 seconds off the Swede’s 23.5 second lead.
SATURDAY'S ROUTE
The second leg is based much closer to the Hagfors service park than today's action. Drivers leave Karlstad at 06.00 to tackle two identical loops of four special stages, including a short test on the edge of Hagfors itself. The loops are split by a 30 minute service in Hagfors and competitors return to Karlstad for the final overnight halt after a further 117.76km of action.
POSTIONS AFTER DAY ONE
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1
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Mikko HIRVONEN
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08:04.8
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0
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0
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2
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Sébastien LOEB
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08:11.0
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6.2
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6.2
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3
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Dani SORDO
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08:15.4
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4.4
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10.6
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4
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Jari-Matti LATVALA
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08:36.5
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21.1
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31.7
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5
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Sébastien OGIER
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09:15.7
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39.2
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+1:10.9
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6
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Henning SOLBERG
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10:21.0
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+1:05.3
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+2:16.2
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7
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Mads ÖSTBERG
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11:25.0
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+1:04.0
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+3:20.2
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8
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Matthew WILSON
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11:25.9
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0.9
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+3:21.1
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9
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P-G ANDERSSON
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12:20.9
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55
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+4:16.1
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10
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Janne TUOHINO
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13:20.1
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59.2
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+5:15.3
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11
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Andreas MIKKELSEN
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13:23.5
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3.4
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+5:18.7
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12
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Martin PROKOP
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13:46.0
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22.5
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+5:41.2
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13
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Petter SOLBERG
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14:50.1
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+1:04.1
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+6:45.3
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14
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Patrik FLODIN
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14:59.4
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9.3
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+6:54.6
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15
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Patrik SANDELL
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15:06.6
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7.2
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+7:01.8
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16
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Anders GRÖNDAL
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15:20.4
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13.8
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+7:15.6
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17
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Khalid AL QASSIMI
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15:22.6
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2.2
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+7:17.8
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18
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Peter jr. VAN MERKSTEIJN
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15:27.8
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5.2
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+7:23.0
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19
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Bernardo SOUSA
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15:33.7
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5.9
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+7:28.9
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20
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Michal SOLOWOW
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15:49.7
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16
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+7:44.9
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