Sweden Rally 2006: OMV Peugeot Norway - Leg 1
The OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally Team has successfully started into the Uddeholm Swedish Rally.
The Austrian OMV duo Manfred Stohl and Ilka Minor in the Peugeot 307 WRC lies in sixth place after six of 19 special stages. This in spite of a moment of shock on special stage two when spectators crossed the course.

OMV teammate Henning Solberg gained momentum after initial problems and finished the first leg of the second run to the FIA World Rally Championship in excellent seventh place. This means that the two Peugeot 307 WRCs employed by Bozian Racing would currently score points in the manufacturers championship.

Attention: spectators crossing
The Uddeholm Swedisch Rally began extremely well for Manfred Stohl despite comparatively low expectations. The 33-year-old OMV driver achieved fourth best time on special stage one. But SS 2 held an unpleasant surprise in store. Sebastien Loeb (Fra/Citroen) entered the stage with a one-minute delay. Therefore the interval between the World Champion and the OMV driver was only one minute.

Since spectators reckoned on the usual two minutes, some changed their positions by crossing the course. Thus Stohl/Minor not only had to pay attention to the slippery surface but also to the traversing spectators. Stohl: “It was rather unsettling. I`m glad we managed to complete this stage without any incidents. The rally is as difficult as we expected it to be but we are doing fine. Our current ranking also means a better starting position for Saturday. The rally is not over by far."

Pushed too hard
Henning Solberg wanted to keep up with the top right from stage one and pushed too hard – resulting in a spin. The Norwegian OMV driver lost some time and it took a while to find the right rhythm again. But at the end of the day the brother of the World Champion 2003 gained momentum and several top times brought him up to seventh overall place. Solberg: “The spin was definitely superfluous. We had wanted to give our all right from the beginning. In the end there were a lot of tracks on the course. If you drive at full speed in such a situation the spikes start to loosen and you continually lose grip."

No time to relax
Stohl`s co-driver Ilka Minor also can tell tales of the difficulties of the Swedish Rally. Extremely fast passages give way to slow turns. “The problem is: on the one hand you have to read the notes very fast and then again very slowly. It is hard to get the right mixture and there is no way to find a consistent pace," explains Ilka Minor, the only female co-driver in the World Rally Championship top field. And there is hardly time to relax for the OMV Peugeot Norway World Rally Team, for 130 special stage kilometres are scheduled for Saturday.

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