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| 2008 Swedish Rally : WRC Round 2 of 15 : 8th - 10th February In this issue: Leg 2 Unofficial Leaderboard Leg 2 News Event Links Leg 2 Team by Team News Remaining Event Schedule 1. Unofficial Leaderboard Leaderboard after Day 2 1. J-M Latvala/M Anttila FIN Ford Focus RS 2h03m53.7sec 2. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen FIN Ford Focus RS +49.8s 3. G Galli/G Bernacchini I Ford Focus RS +1m35.9s 4. P Solberg/P Mills N Subaru Impreza +2m40.9s 5. M Wilson/S Martin GB Ford Focus RS +4m37.6s 6. A Mikkelsen/O Floene N Ford Focus RS +4m48.1s 7. D Sordo/M Marti E Citroen C4 +6m51.9s 8. T Gardemeister/T Tuominen FIN Suzuki SX4 +8m49.3s 9. J Hânninen/M Markkula FIN Mitsubishi Lancer +8m52.7s 10. J Ketomaa/M Teiskonen FIN Subaru Impreza +10m00.8s 2. Leg News Ford continued to dominate the Swedish Rally today to maintain first and second positions with one day of this second round of the FIA World Rally Championship remaining. Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila retained the lead in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car, 49.8sec ahead of team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen. Focus RS cars fill five of the top six positions. Behind the BP Ford Abu Dhabi cars, Italian Gigi Galli (Ford) held third on only his second rally with the Stobart team. He moved into a podium place after team-mate Henning Solberg punctured on the opening stage and dropped 20sec. The Norwegian then retired when he damaged the front of his car after hitting a barrier. Petter Solberg (Subaru) is fourth, despite finding his car hard to drive after a shock absorber change. Stobart's Matthew Wilson (Ford) lies fifth while Norway's Andreas Mikkelsen rounds off Ford's domination in sixth. Dani Sordo (Citroen) climbed to seventh after winning two stages while Toni Gardemeister (Suzuki) is eighth, despite losing 3min 30sec after going off the road this morning. Sébastien Loeb (Citroen) restarted under SupeRally rules after retiring yesterday. He won two stages before retiring on a liaison section this afternoon with engine problems. 4. Team by Team News BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 Latvala, chasing his maiden world rally victory on only his second event with the team, extended his 48.2sec lead over Hirvonen to 62.1sec during the first two tests. Hirvonen narrowed the gap to 53.9sec at the midpoint and then won the final stage to leave the pair in virtually the same situation tonight as when they began the day's competition. #3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: "My plan was to come to Sweden and win, but Jari-Matti has been more than fast and deserves to lead," he said. "I wanted to catch him but I didn't have a good feeling on the first two stages. I found a better rhythm as the day went on. I'm a little disappointed not to lead, but I'm happy with second. The gap is big on both sides of me so I'll drive carefully tomorrow to save my tyres. It won't be flat out. " #4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: "I drove hard but eased off in the difficult sections. I watched Mikko's split times and matched my pace accordingly. The conditions were incredible, with so much slush and water on the ground and I've never driven on studded winter tyres when there is no ice. It's getting exciting, but I don't want to get too excited yet. I tried to stay calm and focus on my concentration and I need to keep a cool head tomorrow when I expect the conditions to be similar." #19 : Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr: No quote available Citroen Total World Rally Team http://citroen.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=1 The second day of the 2008 Swedish Rally saw Dani Sordo/Marc Martí and their Citroën C4 WRC produce a spectacular comeback from overnight 18th to 7th overall this evening which, as things stand, is worth four Manufacturers' points for Citroën. The second C4 WRC posted two fastest times today in the hands of Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena but the Citroën Total pair was later sidelined by an engine problem which stemmed from their off on the opening leg. #1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "In the sort of situation we were in, it's never easy to know what tactic to adopt. We tried to push hard to stay concentrated and everything went well up to the service halt, but we decided not to go any further because our engine had suffered too much in our off on SS4." #2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: "I was more familiar with today's stages than those programmed yesterday and I found a good pace at once," continued Dani. "My driving on these slippery stages is getting better all the time and I was pleased with my run today. My C4 WRC coped very well with the rougher portions, too, and I hope I can improve my position further still to score extra points for Citroën." Subaru World Rally Team http://subaru.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=5 The Subaru World Rally Team entry of Petter Solberg/Phil Mills finished the second day of the Swedish Rally having climbed to fourth place overall. Team-mates Chris Atkinson/Stéphane Prévot steadily battled their way through the field focusing on gaining manufacturer points at the end of tomorrow. #5 : Petter Solberg/Phil Mills: “We drove as fast as we could in the conditions today. We couldn’t attack or really push, we just drove our own rally. Ok we’re in fourth, but I didn’t have a good feeling with the car today. We’ll make some more changes in service for tomorrow and see tomorrow.” #6 : Chris Atkinson/Stephane Prevot: “The car ran ok, and we had no major problems. We’re focusing on Manufacturer points so there was no need to do anything silly. Conditions were very tricky today and it was easy to make a mistake. Every stage was full gravel apart from SS11 so it’s a strange Swedish Rally. It was trickiest where you got unexpected slush on the inside of corners that changed the grip level. The car was better today and we were fastest at the beginning of the final stage. We’ll make some more changes tonight and have a steady day tomorrow.” Stobart VK M-Sport Ford World Rally Team http://ford.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=2 A day of mixed fortunes for the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford rally team has left both its blue and green liveried cars inside the top-five at this weekend’s Uddeholm Swedish Rally, round two of the FIA World Rally Championship. #7 : Gigi Galli/Giovanni Bernacchini: “We are very pleased with the speed here. After Henning went off things changed and we tried to just keep our position. Malcolm [Wilson] advised me to keep the pace under control and to keep the position. It is important for us to keep this position on the podium so there will be three Fords on the podium tomorrow. The car feels really good and is comfortable in the stages. It is good to come back with the speed on snow after being away for such a long break.” #8 : Henning Solberg/Cato Menkerud: “I am very disappointed with what has happened today we just made a small mistake and got caught out on the exit of a fast corner. I know the Stobart mechanics will work hard tonight to repair the car for tomorrow and hopefully we can still collect some points. This was the event that I needed to try hard on and it’s a shame this has happened especially for all the Norwegian fans who have come to watch.” #16 : Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin: “Andreas [Mikkelsen] has been pushing me very hard today and we lost some time to him this morning but we have managed it well and we made up the pace a bit this afternoon to keep ahead of him. It’s been great to get up into fifth and enjoy ourselves on some difficult stages. We have settled into a really good pace here and hopefully we can continue this way to the end of the rally.” Suzuki World Rally Team http://suzuki.rallye-info.com/teams.asp?sid=12 At the end of the second day of the Swedish Rally, flying Finn Toni Gardemeister has maintained Suzuki's points-scoring pace on the event so far. Gardemeister's SX4 WRC returns to parc ferme in Karlstad occupying eighth place, although it has not been an entirely straightforward day for him. Today's action consisted of six stages split into two loops of three with a midday remote service halt at Hagfors. #11 : Toni Gardemeister/Tomi Tuominen: "When we went off it was like nothing I have ever experienced before in my rally career: instead of helping us the spectators accidentally made the situation worse! Otherwise, we could have been out of there in 10 or 15 seconds. It's been a very tough day again, but I'm sure we can score some points so that will definitely be our aim tomorrow. It's going to be impossible to catch the car in front so we just need to concentrate on staying out of trouble and not making any mistakes." #12 : Per-Gunnar Andersson/Jonas Andersson: No quote available 5. Remaing Event Schedule 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 |