Rally Sweden (11-14 February 2010) – Day 2
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia started the day fifth and solidly kept their position throughoutthe second day of the Rally Sweden. Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström suffered a delay yesterdaybut strung together an encouraging series of top 10 stage times to accumulate a bit moreexperience behind the wheel of their Citroën C4 WRC.
The second day of the Rally Sweden got underway at 06:00 this morning, with temperatures dippingbelow -20°C.
On the first special stage of the day, the rear wing of Sébastien Ogier’s Citroën C4 WRC detached itself,leaving the crew with a noticeable lack of rear downforce. “I’ve got no idea about how this happened, butthe car became very difficult to drive at high speed,” he reported. “I made sure that I didn’t take any risksin order to be sure of making it back to service safely. The important thing now is to hang onto our fifthplace until the end.”
Starting 12th on the road, Kimi Räikkönen headed off to the stages eager to learn as much as possibleabout his new craft. Despite a couple of errors of no real consequence, the Citroën Junior Team driverracked up more kilometres and was able to provide valuable feedback to the technical team.“Kimi is beginning to build up a good feeling with his Citroën C4 WRC,” explained his Citroën JuniorTeam engineer Cédric Mazenc. “He has been able to get close to the times of drivers who are far moreexperienced than he is in the WRC. Kimi is convinced that 80% of the improvement he could make inperformance will come from his actual driving rather than adjusting the car. So he is simply following theusual path that people making their first steps in rallying usually take.”
After a half-hour service halt, Sébastien Ogier set off once more for the stages with a perfectly balancedC4 WRC this time. Having posted fifth-fastest time in Vargasen (SS13) the former Junior World RallyChampion decided to hang onto his original set of tyres for the next stage, in order to keep some newtyres for the final long stage of the loop.
As it turned out, the conditions did not favour this strategy. Despite having new tyres on the front, theC4 WRC proved tricky to drive with worn rear tyres. Sébastien Ogier made the same observation asSébastien Loeb: “We weren’t far off doing something very good but the rear tyres did not hold upsufficiently well. The main thing is that we’ve held onto our place and that’s what we need to continuedoing tomorrow. Fifth would be a great result for our first time in Sweden.”
Kimi Räikkönen remained focussed on his target but upped his pace towards the end of the day. “I’mgetting a better feeling with the Citroën C4 WRC all the time,” said Kimi. “But I still need to understandthe aspects of my driving that I must improve. We’re looking at the split times to see where we arecompared to everyone else. This is very good for my experience. I’m happy about the way our day hasgone.”
THE RALLY BY NUMBERS
Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia Kimi Räikkönen / Kaj LindströmSS9 : Vargasen 1 (1.90 km) 6th +20’’8 5th +1’31’’7 11th +54’’4 44th +30’40’’3SS10 : Sagen 1 (20.78 km) 7th +12’’8 5th +1’40’’6 32nd +1’01’’7 43rd +31’38’’1SS11 : Fredriksberg 1 (21.28 km) 8th +20’’6 5th +2’01’’0 11th +34’’2 42nd +32’12’’1SS12 : Hagfors Sprint 1 (19.21 km) 3rd +1’’0 5th +1’59’’5 8th +5’’9 42nd +32’15’’5SS13 : Vargasen 2 (20.78 km) 5th +16’’3 5th +2’14’’4 10th +38’’5 37th +32’52’’6SS14 : Sagen 2 (21.28 km) 8th +18’’1 5th +2’31’’5 9th +19’’1 37th +33’10’’7SS15 : Fredriksberg 2 (19.21 km) 4th +15’’1 5th +2’46’’1 6th +22’’8 35th +33’33’’0SS16 : Hagfors Sprint 2 (1.90 km) 6th +6’’0 5th +2’42’’1 28th +17’’6 35th +33’40’’6
Fastest stage timesDay 1 – SS1: Dani Sordo (Citroën C4) – SS2 and 3: Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4) – SS4 and 5: MikkoHirvonen (Ford Focus) – SS6: Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus) – SS7: Hirvonen – SS8: Loeb.Day 2 – SS9: Hirvonen – SS10 to 12: Loeb – SS13: Latvala – SS14: Marcus Grönholm (Ford Focus) –SS15: Latvala – SS16: Martin Prokop (Ford Fiesta).
Best performers: Loeb, 6 fastest times – Hirvonen, 4 – Latvala, 3 – Sordo, Grönholm and Prokop, 1.Leaders: SS1: Sordo – SS2 and 3: Loeb – SS4 to 16: Hirvonen.
Classification at end of day two
1. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus 2h14’48’’32. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 +16’’63. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +51’’44. Sordo / Marti Citroën C4 +1’46’’25. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +2’42’’16. H. Solberg / Minor Ford Focus +3’47’’97. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +5’44’’18. Östberg / Andersson Subaru Impreza +5’57’’39. Solberg / Mills Citroën C4 +8’35’’210. Andersson / Fredriksson Skoda Fabia +8’48’’1
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