WRC Rally Sweden returns this weekend and it will be the coldest in history
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR Yaris Rally1 is undergoing a shakedown.
- Round 2 of the World Rally Championship 2022 takes place this weekend in Sweden.
- The event is back after a mid-year due to the Covid-19 outbreak and global shutdowns.
- Ford’s M-Sport team wants to follow its Rally Monte-Carlo win with another gold finish.
- For engine news, go to Hjul24
After a year of absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a new Rally Sweden returns this weekend, and it offers almost perfect conditions for the WC’s only clean winter line-up as ice and snow-covered roads are woven through the picture-postcard countryside.
Distant and frozen forests in northern Sweden will present a frightening challenge when the FIA World Rally Championship enters unknown territory this week for the second chapter in its new exciting hybrid. Never before has Rally Sweden (24 – 27 February) traveled so close to the Arctic Circle. With temperatures dropping to bone-hard -20 ° C in the host city of Umeå this week, the speed tests in the Västerbotten region will fully test the competitors.
When in doubt, throw it out
This weekend, drivers will approach Rally Sweden with the ‘Colin McRae’ ethos so you can expect pedal to metal action. Winter rally requires a unique approach. Drivers lean their cars against snowdrifts to guide them around the corners, while studded tires bite into the ice to provide a remarkable grip and ensure that this paradoxically becomes one of the fastest meetings of the year.
Nordic drivers traditionally dominate in Sweden, but their grip is loosening, according to WRC insiders and Flying Finn Kalle Rovanperä, who is leading the way in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, take nothing for granted: “We start first on the road and will have some road cleaning to do there the first day. “
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“In the test, we started from scratch with the snow layout for the new car, and it felt a bit tricky to drive in the beginning. But together with our teammates, I think we have taken some good steps in the right edge. Direction during the two tests, he says.
Among these teammates is the British Elfyn Evans, who won Sweden’s latest WRC event two years ago and who desperately wants to get back from a disappointing season opener at Rallye Monte-Carlo. The silver is a favorable starting position for the first day.
A strong line-up of drivers
Esapekka Lappi returns to Toyota’s line-up for the first time since leaving the Japanese manufacturer at the end of 2018, while Japanese Takamoto Katsuta drives another GR Yaris for Toyota’s second string Next Generation squad.
M-Sport Ford was the fastest of the blocks with the new generation of cars to win in Monte-Carlo, and Craig Breen leads the British squad in a Puma Rally1. The Irishman is on a stable race with four consecutive podium finishes. Breen will be joined by Gus Greensmith, fresh from his first stage victory in Monte-Carlo, and Adrien Fourmaux, who will focus on a real drive after a massive crash in the French Alps.
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Thierry Neuville leads Hyundai Motorsport’s squad in an i20 N Rally1. The Belgian was Hyundai’s best priest at a problematic opening round for the Korean manufacturer and is once again joined by Ott Tänak and Oliver Solberg, who compete in his home event.
Umeå will host the ceremonial start this evening. The crews then take on 17 stages covering 264.81 km before the Sunday afternoon finish.
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