Sweden Rallye 2006: Red Bull Skoda Team - Leg 2
Arctic temperatures again on the second day of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally near Hagfors at 21 degrees centigrade below zero. The stages were firmly frozen, which led to several incidents with corresponding damage to the bodywork.
The rally itself is characterized by the battle between multiple winner Marcus Gronholm (Ford) and World Champion Sebastien Loeb (Citroen). Both men are dueling without mercy and are just 25.1 seconds apart after two legs, ahead of everyone else.

So far, the second WRC event of the season plays out to be very satisfying for Red Bull Skoda. Mattias Ekstrom is in fifth place overall after 13 special stages completed and is consequently in a position to bring home points for Skoda, both in the drivers` and the manufacturers` championships.

"The car felt comfortable the whole day long. If you look at the stage times, you realise how close this rally is fought. I stalled the engine on the last stage and lost eleven seconds just like that. Tiny mistakes may cost you one or even two positions. It`s like a roller coaster. That`s why it`s so important to stay error-free yet swift on Sunday."

Andreas Aigner, in his first outing in Sweden, is doing a splendid job in this difficult conditions: "Sometimes you lose time when you are off-course and you have to wait for spectators to push you back. Apart from that I am happy with the times I achieved, but on the final test I had a misfire. Still, the most important thing for me is that I can learn extremely much here. Every kilometre is helping me – and in order to maximize my total mileage, tomorrow I will try to get to the finish in Karlstad."

More positive statements, this time from team managers Armin Schwarz and Raimund Baumschlager: "We are dealing with very difficult conditions here in Sweden, and so far we are doing a solid job. Our performance gets appreciated by the scores of fans, we are quite popular with the crowd."

A lot of bad luck for the second Austrian WRC team. Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor were in fifth position in their Peugeot 307, team mate Henning Solberg close behind in sixth. On SS11 (Sundsjon) both cars turned over in almost the same spot. Manfred Stohl had to retire for the day, it will be decided later in the evening whether he will be able to restart tomorrow. Henning Solberg was able to continue in a thouroughly rebuilt car.

Tags: rally,