Rally of Sweden 2008 (WRC)

[Harakimi]

Swedish Rally is renowned for its ice-bound loose surface tracks, huge snow banks that line the roads and freezing temperatures which, in recent years, have plunged in excess of -20ºC. Despite a frozen road surface which can be difficult even to stand on, Rally Sweden has always been one of the fastest rallies in the series thanks to the aggressively spiked tyres fitted to each car.

The action begins on Thursday with the Superspecial stage at the trotting track. Sebastian Loeb will start to his 100th WRC rally there and is keen to win it. Actually Loeb is the only non-scandinavic driver who has won the event in it's 57 year history! Hirvonen is also fast on the snow so I bet there is going to be a nice battle, not to forget Andersson, Solberg, Latvala and Gardemeister...

Citroen had to change Sordo's engine after Monte and that is bad news for him, he will get a 5 minute penalty as the regulations say that the engine must be used for two rallys. According to the weather prodecasts, temperatures are going to stay below zero and there should be nice amount of snow on the roads. :thumbsup:

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[Driverdb]

This is the only time of the year that I regret moving away from that godforsaken part of Sweden. I only had ten minutes by car to the nearest stage.

But the rest of the year kind of sucked out there in the woods. :lol:

[Driverdb]

PG Andersson has already run off the road and the rally hasn't even started yet. :lol:

[Harakimi]

Gawd damn I thought it was wednesday! Anyways the rally started today with one SS. Roads are heard to be in bad condition, it has been raining for several days and there is much gravel on the snowy roads, and many drivers believe that we will see lots of tyre failures. Tomorrow we will be wiser. :thumbsup:

[Driverdb]

Gawd damn I thought it was wednesday! Anyways the rally started today with one SS. Roads are heard to be in bad condition, it has been raining for several days and there is much gravel on the snowy roads, and many drivers believe that we will see lots of tyre failures. Tomorrow we will be wiser. :thumbsup:

The condition of the roads were fine today out in the woods. The SS road condition was another story, but that is far down south and the real stages are in the northern parts of that region. It's looking to be a couple of degrees on the wrong side of the 0 though so the roads that are okay now will probably not be for the entire rally. It's going to be very tricky.

[Harakimi]

Some results after 3 super stages.

1. J-M. Latvala Ford 19.27,1
2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford +5,6
3. Sebastien Loeb Citroen +11,9
4. Henning Solberg Ford +15,9
5. Gigi Galli Ford +23,6
6. Petter Solberg Subaru +30,5
7. P-G. Andersson Suzuki +41,1
8. T.Gardemeister Suzuki +46,0

Loeb is the first driver to get on the stages today and is suffering from that a little bit.

[Driverdb]

Loeb has lost 3 minutes after apparantly rolling the car (I'm not 100% sure on the roll). He's having some engine problems as a result.

PG Andersson's Suzuki seemd to have stopped on the same stage. + 5 minutes :(

[Driverdb]

Loeb has retired. :(

He can continue for leg two but he will then have 20 penalty minutes.

[Harakimi]

Latvala won in Sweden and became the youngest driver ever to win a WRC rally at the age of 22. Hirvonen was 2nd so they scored a nice 1-2 for their team. Loeb was left without of points so Hirvonen is now leading in the championship, tho he was bit disappointed with this result. Latvala has lots of potential and is going to give his teamie much pressure throught the season. As a sideline Al Quassimi made longest jump at legendary Colin's Crest, flying 36 metres!

Final Results:

1. J-M. Latvala Ford 2.46.41,2
2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford +58,3
3. Gigi Galli Ford +2.23,2
4. Petter Solberg Subaru +2.59,4
5. A. Mikkelsen Ford +5.46,0
6. Daniel Sordo Citroen +7.13,1
7. T.Gardemeister Suzuki +10.35,3
8. Juho Hänninen Mitsubishi +13.27,5

List of youngest winners:

1. Jari-Matti Latvala, Finland, 22 yr 313 days - 2008 Rally Sweden
2. Henri Toivonen, Finland, 24 yr 86 days - 1980 RAC-rally
3. Markku Alén, Finland, 24 yr 156 days - 1975 Rally Portugal
4. François Duval, Belgium, 24 yr 359 days - 2005 Rally Australia
5. Colin McRae, Great Britain, 25 yr 2 days - 1993 Rally New Zealand
6. Timo Salonen, Finland, 25 yr 345 days - 1977 Rally Canada
7. Juha Kankkunen, Finland, 25 yr 352 days - 1985 Safari-rally
8. Fulvio Bacchelli, Italy, 26 yr 69 days - 1977 Rally New Zealand
9. Mikko Hirvonen, Finland, 26 yr 89 days - 2006 Rally Australia
10. Stig Blomqvist, Sweden, 26 yr 203 days - 1973 Rally Sweden