Kalle hopes for an icy Sweden
The defending WRC champion finished a solid second overall in the season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo last month, however his teammate Sébastien Ogier – who won round one – will not be present in Sweden.
What that means is that for Friday’s opening stretch at least, Rovanperä will open the way – potentially sweeping a clean line on the snow-covered stages and ultimately making the ground faster for those behind.
The Finn mastered similar challenges this time last season when, after performing road opening duties for the first time, he won the event by 22 seconds from Thierry Neuville. This year, he hopes for as much ice as possible to reduce the cleaning effect.
“It’s really nice to be back on snow,” Rovanperä said during his pre-event test. “We only have one snow event a year and it’s always cool to have studded tires on the car and push between the banks.
Trailer: WRC Rally Sweden 2023
“In our test we had perfect conditions, basically. The road was really icy with a thick layer of ice, and the studs on the tires went really deep into the ice of the road.
“Obviously opening the road is always going to be tricky,” he continued. “It depends a lot on the conditions and how it will be, but let’s hope that the conditions will be like this and that we don’t suffer too much.”
Rovanperä is joined in his GR Yaris team by Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta. Italian privateer Lorenzo Bertelli also debuts a fourth car but will not score any manufacturers’ championship points.
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