Rally Sweden (11-14 February 2010) – Day 3
Driving the two Citroën C4 WRCs entered by the Citroën Junior Team, Sébastien Ogier / JulienIngrassia and Kimi Räikkönen / Kaj Lindström showed off their talents on the Rally Sweden, roundone of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship. The French crew finished fifth on their firstparticipation in Sweden, while the Finnish duo successfully got to the end of their debut WorldChampionship event at the wheel of the C4 WRC.
The long third and final day of the Rally Sweden got underway at 05:35. Having arrived at the Hagforsservice park from Karlstad, the crews then headed off for five special stages in the north-east of theVärmland province.
Having secured fifth place right from the beginning on SS2, Sébastien Ogier continued his progresswhile taking care to avoid mistakes. Placed about a minute behind Dani Sordo in fourth and with morethan a minute’s cushion over Henning Solberg in sixth, the Frenchman only had to get to the end of therally to score his first 10 points of the season. It was an exceptional performance on what was just thesecond snow rally of his career.
Ogier said: “This is a great result to start the season with. I’d like to thank the entire team, which hasdone an exceptional job. The first day of the rally went perfectly for us and we quickly got up to a goodpace. Afterwards, we just needed to look after our end result. The initial objective was simply to be thereat the finish in order to accumulate experience on what was a brand new rally for us. As it is, this fifthplace is a result that gives us plenty of confidence for the rest of the season. Now we need to continuemaking progress, starting from the next round in Mexico.”
Kimi Räikkönen began the day 11th on the road at the wheel of his Citroën C4 WRC. “We’ve made aprogress during this event,” commented the former F1 World Champion. “It was important for ourexperience to finish this first rally of our WRC season. We lost a bit of time with the snowbanks but themain thing was to get through all the special stages. We always knew that Sweden was never going to bean easy rally for us to start the season with. But now we are able to prepare for the next event. I haven’tdriven the Citroën C4 WRC on gravel yet, but I hope that we can be more consistent in Mexico.”
Benoit Nogier, the Citroën Junior Team manager, commented: “Kimi has made a remarkable start on hisfirst World Championship event with us. We stuck completely to the plan that we had set outbeforehand. Kimi got progressively quicker, but also remained calm in the face of all the new things thathe had to learn. As for Sébastien Ogier, he displayed all the qualities that he showed at the end of lastyear and we could not hope for better. He has ended up fifth on his very first Rally Sweden, havingavoided making any mistakes. We cannot be anything but extremely satisfied with his performance.Throughout the whole rally, the cars did not display a single issue and that is always a very good sign of agreat weekend! From start to finish, our cars and drivers have displayed a truly front-runningperformance.”
THE RALLY BY NUMBERSSébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia Kimi Räikkönen / Kaj LindströmSS17 : Rammen 1 (21.87 km) 7th +15’’1 5th +2’57’’0 11th +36’’7 34th +34’17’’1SS18 : Varmullsasen 1 (23.41 km) 6th +21’’0 5th +3’18’’0 28th +2’11’’5 32nd +36’28’’6SS19 : Lesjofors (10.49 km) 7th +11’’6 5th +3’29’’6 11th +26’’8 31st +36’55’’4SS20 : Rammen 2 (21.87 km) 7th +17’’1 5th +3’45’’7 11th +32’’0 31st +37’26’’4SS21 : Varmullsasen 2 (23.41 km) 12th +34’’4 5th +4’15’’3 7th +25’’3 30th +37’47’’2
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).Day 3 – SS17: Loeb – SS18 and 19: Hirvonen – SS20 and 21: Latvala.Best performers: Loeb, 7 fastest times – Hirvonen, 6 fastest times – Latvala, 5 fastest times – Sordo,Grönholm and Prokop, 1 fastest time.Leaders: SS1: Sordo – SS2 and 3: Loeb – SS4 to 21 (finish): Hirvonen.
Provisional final classification1. Hirvonen / Lehtinen Ford Focus 3h09’30’’42. Loeb / Elena Citroën C4 +42’’33. Latvala / Anttila Ford Focus +1’15’’44. Sordo / Marti Citroën C4 +2’41’’65. Ogier / Ingrassia Citroën C4 +4’15’’36. H. Solberg / Minor Ford Focus +5’23’’47. Wilson / Martin Ford Focus +7’53’’98. Östberg / Andersson Subaru Impreza +9’22’’29. Solberg / Mills Citroën C4 +10’17’’510. Andersson / Fredriksson Skoda Fabia +12’08’’9
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