The Rally of Sweden, the second round of the 2023 WRC, will start this evening with the first special stage. This morning, however, the Shakedown was held on a 5.45 km track called Hakmark.
World champion Kalle Rovanpera set the fastest time, thanks to a time of 2’50″9. The Toyota driver set the best time on his third out of three laps.
The duel started with compatriot Esapekka Lappi was beautiful, the only one to keep up with the 21-year-old from Toyota Racing. The Hyundai Motorsport standard bearer had to settle for second place, resulting in just 1 tenth of a second slower than his compatriot.
Toyota GR Yaris as always in great dust enough to occupy 3 of the first 4 positions. Behind Lappi we find Takamoto Katsuta, also returning from a test-race on the snow to prepare for this event. Elfyn Evans was the author of an excellent improvement in the fourth of his 4 passes, thus climbing to fourth position.
Hyundai who seem to have the pace to be able to fight with the Toyotas not so much from the final result, but from the stage simulation done in the first step. With Rovanpera opening the Shakedown and the riders entering practice in the order in which they will do so from the first stage, Lappi and Thierry Neuville were competitive results.
As for the final result, however, Craig Breen obtained the fifth fastest time just ahead of his Belgian teammate. The Irishman is making his season debut and first rally at the wheel of the i20 N Rally1 after leaving M-Sport at the end of last season.
Health problems for Neuville, who was unwell all week and showed up in Sweden debilitated. We’ll see how much his physical condition will affect him during the race weekend.
Ott Tanak and Pierre-Louis Loubet close the professional drivers classification at the wheel of a Rally1 car. The Estonian is back from a test-race in Estonia: we’ll see if and how much it will have served to improve his feeling at the wheel of the Ford Puma Rally1 EcoBoost Hybrid.
Lorenzo Bertelli, on his first outing with the GR Yaris Rally1 (equipped with 2022 aerodynamic specifications, not the current ones) is instead just under 15 seconds behind the best time in Rovanpera.
As for WRC2, there was a good challenge between Oliver Solberg, Ole-Christian Veiby and Teemu Suninen. The three riders are enclosed within 8/10 and could potentially be the three favorites to win the class this weekend.
Worth noting is the double intervention of the safety car which stopped the rehearsal because of the public, found several times beyond the safety zones delimited by the tapes.
pos. | Pilot/navigator | Car | Time | No. of turns | Class |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rovanpera/Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2’50”9 | 3 | WRC extension |
2 | Lappi/Ferm | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | 2’51”0 | 3 | WRC extension |
3 | Katsuta/Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2’51”2 | 3 | WRC extension |
4 | Evans/Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2’51”8 | 4 | WRC extension |
5 | Breen/Fulton | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | 2’52”2 | 3 | WRC extension |
6 | Neuville/Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | 2’54”0 | 3 | WRC extension |
7 | Tanak/Jarveoja | Ford Puma Rally1 | 2’54”4 | 3 | WRC extension |
8 | Loubet/Gilsoul | Ford Puma Rally1 | 2’56”2 | 4 | WRC extension |
9 | Solberg/Edmondson | Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 | 3’01”4 | 4 | WRC2 |
10 | Veiby/Eriksen | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 3’01”7 | 3 | WRC2 |
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