Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen kicked off the weekend of the Rally Sweden WRC by hitting the fastest time in today’s Shakedown.
The World Championship moves north for the only winter event of the season held on ice and snow, and the Toyota crew placed the GR Yaris with a time of 3’22 “400 at the end of the 7.59km course. “Klabböle”.
Behind the Finns are the Hyundai i20 Ns of Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja and Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe, respectively with a delay of 0 “3 and 0” 8; we would like to point out that the two Belgians also had a mishap, ending up against a snowdrift after slipping under braking.
“Unfortunately we ran into this problem because there was a lot more snow on the bottom than in the reconnaissance – explains Neuville – I lost grip finishing wide and hitting the snowdrift. We were stuck and it took me a while to get out”.
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston (Toyota) and Craig Breen / Paul Nagle (Ford Puma-M-Sport) also encountered the same problem, finishing in fourth and fifth position, followed by Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson’s Puma.
Both took a fourth lap on the route to get their best time, jumping ahead of Oliver Solberg / Elliott Edmondson’s Hyundai and Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin and Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm’s Toyota, the latter returning to the series at place of Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia, who as known will only be involved in some races of the 2022 season.
After the terrible flight in a cliff at Monte-Carlo, Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria are called to redeem with the last Ford Puma registered in the event: at the moment the M-Sport crew has obtained the tenth performance closing the ranking of Rally1, while behind them are the reigning WRC2 Champions, Andreas Mikkelsen / Torstein Eriksen in the Toksport WRT Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo.
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