Sweden : Mitsubishi - Leg 2Production Car World Rally Championship debutant Juho Hanninen turned in a heroic drive through leg two of the Swedish Rally to place his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution ahead of all his competitors. The Finn is now just five stages away from a possible
first ever category win at this level.
Today's seven stages were, once again, run on the frozen Varmland roads surrounding the event's central service park in Hagfors. There was less snow falling in the region than yesterday, but the temperatures on the super-fast stages remained firmly below freezing. Hanninen's pace through the day was enough to warm the hearts of the tens of thousands of spectators who had turned out to watch the action. Quick as he had been, Hanninen admitted his day hadn't started in the best possible fashion.
"I hit a snow bank with 10km of Liljendal to go this morning," said Hanninen. "The snow came right across the windscreen and then froze. It was terrible. I could see only through a very small part of the screen for the last 10km. I dropped a lot of time in there. It was very frustrating for me. We had gone through all of the hairpins and I'd been so neat and tidy, not wanting to lose time with sliding. Then I touch the snow and that's that.
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Despite that indiscretion, Hanninen spent the day closing down on Production Car WRC leader Kristian Sohlberg. In the penultimate stage of the day, he passed his fellow Finn and moved to the head of the P-WRC field.
"The car has been quite okay for me today," he added. "There have been no technical problems at all. We have made some small changes to the Mitsubishi and I am very happy with the car."
Another driver making their maiden outing in the Production series was Portuguese Armindo Araujo. He was delighted to hold a points-scoring sixth position in P-WRC at the end of the second day. Araujo's day hadn't been entirely straightforward after a minor transmission fault at the start of the leg, however.
"The clutch wasn't right at the end of the stage," he said. "I had a spin earlier, maybe that was something to do with it. It's been good since then. I'm enjoying this event, even though I have hardly any experience of this – I only did one smaller rally on snow before the start."
Britain's Mark Higgins had been making good progress up the leaderboard in his Lancer Evolution, before sliding off the road for five minutes just four corners before the end of the Vargasen test. Higgins continued, but was no longer able to battle for points. Fumio Nutahara was on the edge of the points positions by the close of play, having recovered well from an early puncture on his Lancer.
At the front of the field, Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 driver Toni Gardemeister dropped time and places after a stunning run through the early part of leg two. Gardemeister had been at the sharp end of the pace throughout the leg, until a freak transmission fault hit his privately run car prior to the penultimate stage of the day.
Gardemeister said: "We changed the tires and the left-front driveshaft dropped down. I tried to fix it before the stage, but didn't have time. We had to do the whole stage in just rear-wheel-drive, which cost us some time. On top of that, we were late going into the control which gave us a 50-second penalty."
After leading the event after the first stage, Gardemeister is now eighth, albeit just 1.4 seconds away from seventh. Gardemeister's fellow Finn
Marcus Gronholm continues to lead the Swedish Rally overall in his Ford Focus RS WRC 06. Second-placed man
Sebastien Loeb all-but admitted his chances of winning this rally were finished after SS12. The Frenchman lost time when he chose the wrong tire in the middle loop of stages on today's loop. Mikko Hirvonen is third ahead of tomorrow's final day.
Mitsubishi Motors
