Before dawn this morning just when the cars were about to exit from the parc fermé, temperatures reached -20°C under starry skies. These early conditions were announcing a sunny and ideal day for the competitors and the spectators.
However, all drivers and co-drivers experience cold feet in their cars, which lead them to rush on the heaters as soon as they arrive in their service areas, trying to warm up before restarting for the next stages.
The morning issue for the first loop of stages, including the short speed test of ‘Hara’ (SS7/11.32 km) and ‘Sundsjön’ (SS8/20.78 km), was of course the tyre choice: considering the information at disposal of the team and drivers, road conditions could vary from clean sheet ice to icy road covered in a thin layer of snow and snow powder. Seb’ selected tyres with medium length studs while Marcus chose the longest ones.
“On the start line, I was already not happy with our choice. No way it was only sheet ice, it was actually covered in snow. I drove all through the stage trying to compensate the lack of grip.”
As a result, a loss of 4.9 s and in other terms almost half a second per kilometre.
“In Sundsjön, I’m usually doing quite well, continued the reigning World Champion. But the first intermediate times showed I was slower than Marcus. Fortunately, the end of the stage was icier and I could limit the gap. We will try to make a better choice for the next loop.”
Same thing on Xevi Pons’ side, who was also driving with the medium length studs. “A lot of ‘skating’, explained the Catalan who managed to have a clean run.
His compatriot Dani Sordo experienced a puncture on stage 7. He changed the wheel in between the two stages, but “around one kilometre in the stage, I was a bit too fast arriving in a corner. The car understeered and we hit the snowbank. Despite the help of the spectators, we needed quite a lot of time to be able to restart.” In total, almost seven minutes lost.
“It’s the normal learning process, explained Kronos racing’s boss Marc Van Dalen. The main thing is that Dani continues to learn…”
Competitors head off for a three stages loop, including ‘Likenäs’ – the furthest up North stage which end on a rallycross circuit – then a second passage in ‘Hara’ and ‘Sundsjön’.
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