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| 2008 Rally Sweden : WRC Round 2 of 15 : 8th - 10th February Event Preview Other News Team by Team Preview Event statistics Event Schedule Championship Points 1. Event Preview This week's Swedish Rally lays claim to the tag of being the most specialised round of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship by virtue of its date in the middle of the Scandinavian winter. Although the stage surfaces consist of snow and ice, Sweden is ironically one of the quickest events of the year - as the cars run on narrow tyres with studs that provide even better grip than an ordinary gravel rally. When it snows heavily, thick snowbanks form by the side of the Swedish stages to line the route. Part of the black art of driving the Swedish Rally is to know how to use those snowbanks effectively, by 'leaning' the car against them in order to guide it through the corner. This is a delicate balancing act though: if a driver leans too hard the car will simply crash through the snowbank and get stuck. Too much contact with the snow can also clog radiators and cause overheating, so it is always to keep a clean but fast line. This year's snowfall may not be as heavy as that of previous years, so it will be important for the drivers to look after their tyres in order not to lose too many studs. There is a finite skill demonstrated on few other events of flicking the car into the long and twisting corners and ‘leaning’ against the snow banks, literally using them to guide the car through the icy corners. Rally Sweden is the first competitive outing for Pirelli’s Sottozero ice tyre. The skinny rubber is dotted with metal studs designed to bite through the ice into the harder-packed surface below, producing fantastic grip on the most treacherous of conditions. There are major changes for 2008. The main service park, previously in Hagfors, has been relocated to Karlstad to form a rally village with the headquarters and the super special stage, using the city's trotting track and ice hockey arena. Many of the stages have changed too, with just six of the 20 tests following the same format as in 2007, although most of the others are familiar from previous years. The action begins with a super special stage at the trotting track on Thursday evening before Friday's opening day visits the western part of the Värmland region for the first time since 2001. Saturday and Sunday's tests are clustered around Hagfors with all the more northerly stages missing from this year's itinerary. All three days include a remote service midway through. Sunne hosts Friday's break with Hagfors the location for Saturday and Sunday. Drivers face 20 stages in total, with all 10 venues used twice, covering 340.24km in a total route of 1440.08km. Event links: Entry List | Event News | Event History | Event Photos | Tipping | Official Event Site 2. Other News Pirelli Sottozero tyres WRC Challenge http://www.rallye-info.com/article.asp?sid=0&stid=6753 3. Team by Team Preview BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 The team's all-Finish driver line-up will feel comfortable having grown up in such conditions. But keeping their Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars at peak performance in the unrelenting cold requires huge resolve and determination from technicians forced to lie outside in the snow in such extremes. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: Hirvonen, second on Rallye Monte Carlo, has five previous starts here to his name and finished third in 2007. The 27-year-old won the championship's last winter rally in Norway in 2007. "Everyone is asking if I feel I'm the favourite," he said. "There are a few possible winners and I'm one of them, but I don't regard myself as the favourite. There's a little pressure, but I felt pressure in Rallye Monte Carlo and had a good result there. This is the first rally that I'm really thinking I have to win if I want to fight for the drivers' title. "I hope the conditions are full winter. If there's a lot of snow and ice then Pirelli's tyres will work well. Reliability will also be important because there is no traditional 30-minute service in the middle of the day, just a 15-minute remote service using only spare parts carried in the car. I don't agree with that because if a car has a minor problem early in the morning then a driver can be stuck with it for the rest of the day. But the Focus is a reliable car so I'm not too concerned," added Hirvonen. #4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: This is Latvala's fourth Swedish Rally and the 22-year-old is hoping the snow and ice arrives in time. "A proper winter rally is great fun. I've driven many snow rallies and the feeling of driving fast in winter is one that I really enjoy. The conditions are more forgiving and the car spends more time sideways than on a gravel rally, because that style helps to get the car to turn into bends," he said. "It's not so easy when the conditions aren’t so good. A lack of snow isn't too much of a problem but if there is no ice and the gravel comes through the surface, then it can rip out the studs from the tyres and destroy them. Where the lack of snow becomes a problem is if a driver needs to use the snowbanks. If you carry too much speed into a bend you can lean into the snow banks to guide the car round the corner. But if they are small and soft, when the rear of the car hits the bank it can drag the front in as well. It's important to keep the front wheels turned away from the bank to avoid that," he explained. #19 : Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr: Driving a third official Focus RS and making his Swedish debut is Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and co-driver Michael Orr. "It's difficult to think about how I will approach the rally itself. I've only driven on snow and ice for one brief test about a year ago and so have little experience. However, it's clear that it will be completely different to asphalt or gravel," said 35-year-old Al Qassimi. "The right approach will only come from as much mileage on the rally as possible. We'll start at a steady pace to understand the conditions and how the car works in them and build from there. I gather that the driving technique on snow and ice is to keep the wheels spinning so the studs cut into the ice as much as possible, but of course I won't be able to develop that until I arrive for the rally," he added. Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 This weekend will see the all-conquering Citroën team of Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena start their 100th World Rally Championship event, en route to which they have become the most successful rally crew of all time, taken four world titles, won more events in one season, taken the most consecutive wins, won the German rally six times – no one else has ever won this event – and set a new record for Monte Carlo Rally wins. Not surprisingly, their start to win ratio, 37 out of 99 or 37 per cent, is also a world record. He has climbed on to the podium, finishing in the top three, in 61 per cent of events entered and completed 85 per cent of events entered. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "Competing on these extremely fast, icy stages is sheer delight," confirms Sébastien Loeb. "Controlling long, high-speed power-slides, setting up the car for corners and using the snowbanks to stay on line is a great experience. When the studs give good grip, it really is a fantastic rally." Talking on 100 events: "It's a nice round figure, but it's not that important to me," observes Seb. "Our objective will be to try to win, which won't be easy. For one thing, we will start the weekend running first on the road and that can often be a handicap in Sweden. Our rivals will also be out to draw level after the Monte Carlo Rally and I'm expecting a close fight. Sure, it would be nice to celebrate our 100th start with a win but scoring points in both championships will also be important and I will base my pace on the way the rally unfolds…" #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: Dani Sordo takes up his team-mate's last point to highlight one of the difficulties inherent in the WRC's annual trip to Sweden: "When the studs bite, you can do what you want with your car and it's tremendous fun. However, if a coating of snow prevents the studs from digging in, it can be more difficult to be precise in your driving. And when you add the extremely high speeds we reach in Sweden into the equation, then this clearly isn't an easy event. It calls for significant experience of this sort of terrain and it's no coincidence that few non-Nordic drivers have won in Karlstad. This will be my third attempt and my objective will be to score points for Citroën." Subaru World Rally Team http://subaru.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=5 The Subaru World Rally Team heads to the long and winding forest routes of Rally Sweden ready to tackle the challenge of all-out sideways action as crews wrestle their machines across sheet ice. The only specialist snow rally of the year, it is one of the fastest and most competitive as WRC crews battle to prove their mettle on the only wholly ice-covered speed tests they will encounter all year. The Subaru World Rally Team have entered two Impreza WRC2007s for Rally Sweden. Petter Solberg / Phil Mills will drive car number five and Chris Atkinson / Stéphane Prévot will be in car number six. Petter has only missed one Rally Sweden since his WRC debut in 1998 whilst this will only be Chris’ fourth attempt, and his first alongside Stéphane. #5 : Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: “It’s the first snow rally this year and I’m looking forward to it. We need to drive very differently here, so it’s about who can adapt. There’s always a lot of fans there and it’s great to have their support. We’ve won here before but it’s so so tricky you never know what can happen. We’ll go there and drive our own rally, push as hard as we can, and see what happens. We can’t do any more than that, and I hope we can have another good finish. It’s about being fast but not making any mistakes.” #6 : Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: “We’re approaching Sweden much the same way as we did Monte Carlo – we go there aiming for top five, top six results and try to be as consistent as possible. Rally Sweden is a specialist snow event and the driving style you need there is obviously totally different. Coming off tarmac we’ll have to adapt quickly to the snow and get up to speed as quickly as possible. In Monte you had to be neat and smooth, but Sweden is probably one of the most aggressive rallies of the year.” Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Next week sees the second round of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship as crews head north for the Uddeholm Swedish Rally. After a superb start to proceedings in Monte-Carlo last week the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team will be looking to continue its current form on the only true winter event this season. Norwegian Henning Solberg will be the elemental factor as he takes on what is essentially his home event, for the tenth time in his career. With five consecutive Norwegian Rally Championship titles to his name Solberg and co-driver Cato Menkerud will be the ones to watch out for as they look to improve on their best result which they claimed last year by finishing fourth. Gigi Galli heads to Sweden in a similar boat having contested the event seven times in the past with his best result coming in 2006 when he finished fourth, just seven seconds from a podium spot. Hailing from Livigno in the Alps, Galli is no stranger to driving on snow and will be looking for another fine result as he and co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini attack the Swedish roads for the first time in a Stobart Focus RS WRC07. Recently celebrating his 21st birthday Britain’s Matthew Wilson will be looking for a belated gift next week as he tackles the icy Swedish roads for the third time in his career. Wilson and co-driver Scott Martin will be looking for another strong result after a well notched-up tenth in Monte-Carlo last week. #8 : Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini: “I really like it in Sweden because we have some great memories here. In 2005 I was fighting for the top two or three places before we had a mechanical problem and then in 2006 we only just missed out on a podium finish. I really like driving sideways and I think this is why I really like driving on snow and is the reason we have gone quite well here in the past. I hope maybe we can produce some more good results this year and perhaps challenge for a podium once again. I am still learning about the new car and the team and this year I must do what is best for my team but we will see; hopefully it will be another successful snow rally for me.” #14 : Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: “This is the one I have been waiting for and hopefully we can do even better here this year after finishing fourth in 2007. I am still very inexperienced on tarmac so Monte-Carlo was really an event where I wanted to get experience and finish all the stages but Sweden will be different, it will be maximum attack. The Stobart team is in a great position already so I must remember points for the team is very important but snow is also where I am most comfortable in a rally car so we will try our very best to push for a podium spot.” #16 : Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: “Now I have a full WRC event under my belt with the ‘07 car and Scott as my new co-driver I’m really looking forward to Sweden and to see what we can produce there. It’s definitely one of my more favoured events because of the incredible high speeds we are able to travel at on the ice packed roads. Last year was unfortunate with what happened in the extremely cold temperatures so this time round getting to the finish is priority and hopefully a good result can follow suit.” Suzuki World Rally Team http://suzuki.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=12 After racking up a World Championship point and proving itself capable of setting top six stage times on its full season debut in Monte Carlo, the Suzuki World Rally Team heads to Sweden with the aim of bringing both SX4 WRCs to a points finish. For Suzuki, Sweden is a comparatively new experience as it has only visited the event twice previously, with a Super 1600 car. Those outings have always been positive, as P-G Andersson has won the class in his home rally with Suzuki on both occasions. In mid-January Suzuki completed a pre-event test in northern Sweden near Kall, accumulating around 600 kilometres with both drivers. The SX4 WRC set some respectable times, but most importantly of all it was reliable - allowing the drivers to establish some useful base settings that will be used to start the rally. The team also gained valuable data from the opening round of the WRC in Monte Carlo last weekend, which will be equally useful for Sweden. #11 : Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen: "I was very happy with the performance of the SX4 WRC in Monte Carlo. When things were going well we were less than a second a kilometre off the frontrunners, which is really good for the first rally. In Sweden I'm going to try to score some points, and I think we have a strong chance of achieving this judging by the performance and reliability showed by the SX4 WRC during the pre-Sweden test a few weeks ago. I'm hoping a bit more snow will fall before the rally starts: I remember that last year the snow came very late, just before the rally got underway." #12 : Per-Gunnar Andersson/Jonas Andersson: "Scoring a driver's point in Monte Carlo with the SX4 WRC has given me a real boost going into my home rally, and I'm feeling quite confident. But of course it will actually be harder to get a good result in Sweden than it was in Monte Carlo, as there will be more local experts and also a higher number of entries. If we can finish in the top 10, that would be a great result. I think there should be enough ice on the stages to find good grip, but if there is not so much snow then the speeds will be even faster than usual. Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to it!" 4. Event Statistics Surface: snow and ice Where: Karlstad, Sunne and Hagfors Practical information: the local currency is the Swedish Krona (SEK): SEK1 = €0.105 (SEK10 = €1). The time is the same as continental Europe (GMT+1). Technical matters: The engine and chassis of the C4s both contested the Monte Carlo Rally. They were then sealed before being sent to Karlstad. The engine will go on to compete in Mexico. Two gearbox/differential packages are authorised per driver. Five sets of dampers and five hub carriers are authorised per event. Tyres: a draw will decide the allocation of tyres to teams by the FIA. Only one type of tyre and one stud choice will be available. The number of tyres that can be used during shakedown is limited. It is mandatory to fit fresh tyres before each group of stages. It is possible to carry two spares. Recce: scheduled for Tuesday February 5 and Wednesday February 6. Two passes authorised. Shakedown: Thursday February 7 (from 08.00 until 12h00). The new 2.6km test stage is located 1km north of the service park in Karlstad. Rally Show: Thursday February 7 (18.30 until 19.00) in the service park in Karlstad. Route: total distance is 1,440.08km, including 340.24km divided into 20 stages (10 different). New: the programme includes three stops at remote service zones: in Sunne (Friday) and Hagfors (Saturday and Sunday). 214.10km (62.9%) of the stages are new compared with 2007, including 118.34km on the first day which haven't been visited since 2000 or 2001. Only the super-special (SS1/8) and the Vargåsen (SS11/14) and Lesjöfors (SS16/19) stages are identical to those used last year. 5. Event Schedule Thursday 7 February: Day 1 Karlstad - Karlstad Start Karlstad 20.00 SS1 SSS Karlstad 1 1.90km 20.04 Finish Karlstad 20.44 Friday 8 February: Day 1 (continued) Karlstad - Karlstad Start Karlstad 08.00 Serv A Karlstad (15 mins) 08.17 SS2 Stensjön 1 15.50km 09.34 SS3 Bjälverud 1 21.58km 10.44 SS4 Mangen 1 22.09km 11.23 RSZ B Sunne (15 mins) 12.36 SS5 Stensjön 2 15.50km 13.25 SS6 Bjälverud 2 21.58km 14.35 SS7 Mangen 2 22.09km 15.14 SS8 SSS Karlstad 2 1.90km 18.00 Serv C Karlstad (45 mins) 18.11 Finish Karlstad 19.36 Saturday 9 Febuary: Day 2 Karlstad - Karlstad Start Karlstad 06.50 Serv D Karlstad (15 mins) 07.07 SS9 Horssjön 1 14.89km 08.25 SS10 Hagfors 1 20.92km 09.38 SS11 Vargåsen 1 24.63km 10.41 RSZ E Hagfors (15 mins) 11.58 SS12 Horssjön 2 14.89km 13.04 SS13 Hagfors 2 20.92km 14.17 SS14 Vargåsen 2 24.63km 15.20 Serv F Karlstad (45 mins) 17.25 Finish Karlstad 18.50 Sunday 10 February: Day 3 Karlstad - Karlstad Start Karlstad 06.20 Serv G Karlstad (15 mins) 06.37 SS15 Ullen 1 16.25km 08.08 SS16 Lesjöfors 1 10.49km 09.13 SS17 Rämmen 1 21.87km 09.45 RSZ H Hagfors (15 mins) 10.39 SS18 Ullen 2 16.25km 11.21 SS19 Lesjöfors 2 10.49km 12.26 SS20 Rämmen 2 21.87km 12.58 Serv I Karlstad (10 mins) 14.58 Finish Karlstad 15.08 6. Championship Points Drivers 1. S Loeb 10pts 2. M Hirvonen 8pts 3. C Atkinson 6pts 4. F Duval 5pts 5. P Solberg 4pts 6. G Galli 3pts Manufacturers 1. Citroen Total 11pts 2. Subaru 10pts 3. BP Ford Abu Dhabi 8pts 4. Stobart VK M-Sport 8pts 5. Suzuki 2pts Full standings http://www.rallye-info.com/points.asp |