Rovanperä rules in Sweden’s warming
The 21-year-old Finn passed the ultra-fast speed test at Klabböle at 7.59 km, near the event’s new Umeå base, with an average speed of 135 km / h in his hybrid-powered Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
“The feeling was pretty positive right away,” Rovanperä told WRC.com. “We were even the first car on the road, I think the little rain helped us a little to really freeze the road a little more and it was not so bad in the first pass. Overall, a pretty positive feeling. ”
After a week when the temperature dropped to -20 ° C in the Västerbotten region where this second round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes place, the thermometer hovered around 0 ° C with rain and sleet for shakedown.
Rovanperä will be first in the starting order for Friday’s initial stretch, usually a disadvantage at a winter rally, and took the opportunity to experiment with his approach.
“Little things, what we tried to see how it feels. Of course, the second session is always tricky in the snow and we will have big ruts tomorrow on the second session, so we tried to find some compromise for that.
“Now some of tomorrow’s stages may be a bit wet, we do not know all the conditions yet. But if it is going to freeze until after the rain, it can be good for us. Let’s hope it helps us a little more than we would normally expect to open the way, he added.
Tänak was fastest through the first pass in his Hyundai i20 N, before Takamoto Katsuta lowered the target time on his second ride in a GR Yaris. Rovanperä moved to the top of the standings on his third and final attempt when Tänak climbed to second.
Thierry Neuville finished 0.8 seconds behind Rovanperä in third place in another i20 N, with Katsuta another 0.4 seconds in fourth place. M-Sport Ford duo Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith completed the top six in their Puma Rally1 cars.
Both Neuville and Craig Breen were caught by the conditions earlier and buried their cars in snowdrifts. Breen was stuck for two minutes on his second run while Neuville was trapped for more than five minutes on his first pass.
“I just got stuck during braking,” the Belgian explained. “There is a lot more snow there than at recce and I just lost the grip I was walking next to when I got stuck on a snow bank. It took a while to get out.
Katsuta was another who fell victim to the wintry weather in the first run. He hit a snow bank and filled the radiator of his GR Yaris with snow. When the engine temperature started to rise, he drove slowly to the finish line and the car was returned to the service park with a trailer.
Controls guaranteed no injuries and he returned to the scene for two more attempts.
Leading times were:
Pos | Driver | Car | Time |
1. | Kalle ROVANPERÄ | Toyota GR Yaris | 3 min 22.4 sec |
2. | Ott THINK | Hyundai i20 N | +0.3 sec |
3. | Thierry NEUVILLE | Hyundai i20 N | +0.8 sec |
4. | Takamoto KATSUTA | Toyota GR Yaris | +1.2 sec |
5. | Craig BREEN | Ford Puma | +2.3 sec |
6 | Gus GREENSMITH | Ford Puma | +2.7 sec |
7. | Elfyn EVANS | Toyota GR Yaris | +3.0 sec |
8. | Oliver SOLBERG | Hyundai i20 N | +3.0 sec |
9. | Esapekka LAPPI | Toyota GR Yaris | +3.3 sec |
10. | Adrien FOURMAUX | Ford Puma | +8.3 sec |
• Full coverage from Rally Sweden is available at WRC + All Live hereincluding each stage broadcast when it takes place, as well as important interviews, features and expert analyzes from the service park.