Sweden : Ford World Rally Team - Leg 2Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen dominated today's second leg of the Swedish Rally to build a comfortable lead in their Ford Focus RS World Rally Car. The BP-Ford World Rally Team drivers won five of the seven snow and ice-bound
speed tests to extend their first leg advantage over
Sebastien Loeb from 11.1sec to 38.4sec, with just one day of this second round of the championship remaining.
Team-mates Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen also enjoyed a successful day in their similar Focus RS. The Finns climbed from fifth to third and eased away from closest rival Henning Solberg to return to the rally base in Karlstad for the final overnight halt with a 27.3sec advantage over the Norwegian.
After a very early start from Karlstad, today's action was again based near the Hagfors service park. Drivers faced three loops of special stages covering 141.96km, two east of the city and the middle section on tests to the west already used yesterday. A light dusting of overnight snow did little to change the condition of the forest roads. While the repeated stages had gravel breaking through the icy surface, those tests used for the first time were in better condition with a frozen base.
Overnight leader Gronholm traded tenths of a second with Loeb during the first loop.
However, the 39-year-old Finn powered clear of the Frenchman during the second loop when two stage wins increased his advantage to 27.6sec. Two more wins during the afternoon stretched his lead even further, and took his tally of stage wins to eight from 15 tests.
"It was a perfect day," he said. "We made good tyre choices because in some places the conditions weren't easy. I lost a couple of seconds on the short final stage when I stalled the engine in a corner but that was the only thing that went wrong. Tomorrow's plan is simple – to make no mistakes and to try to stay in front."
"I pushed really hard, but nothing crazy, on the second loop because the Focus felt great and it turned in to the corners superbly," said Gronholm. "There was lots of gravel and that wasn't so easy for the tyres. The gap is big enough now in a normal situation but there is still no room for mistakes. Just one wrong line will send me into a snow bank and the lead has gone. I want to be able to control everything, but to do that I need a bigger lead," he added.
BP-Ford colleague Hirvonen was engrossed in an exciting battle with Solberg and Toni Gardemeister. He climbed to fourth early this morning and then claimed third on the second loop of stages, pulling clear of both drivers as Solberg spun and Gardemeister hit mechanical troubles.
"Today was really enjoyable with fantastic road conditions," said Hirvonen. "The car felt perfect so it is up to me now. I had a good battle with Henning and Toni and when I knew that Henning had a problem on the penultimate stage, I slowed a little because I didn't want to do anything stupid. This morning I couldn't have driven much harder. I was at a good speed but I didn't want to take risks. I need to concentrate 100 per cent tomorrow so as not to make any mistakes."
"Marcus and Seb are too far ahead for me to catch unless they make a mistake, so all I can do is fight to maintain my position. It's my fifth time on this rally and I really would like a podium finish," Hirvonen concluded.
Ford World Rally Team
