This year’s event, which kicks off the 13-round
2010 World Rally Championship season, starts on the 11th February and is
based from the central Swedish city of Karlstad. The competitive stages
have been moved north around a Service Park 85km away at Hagfors
airport. The organisers took this step in an effort to guarantee good
snow cover on the gravel roads of the Varmland and Dalarna regions,
where the majority of the stages will be based.
Since the 2008 event, 57% of the competitive distance has changed,
although many of the new roads are familiar from previous years. The
Karlstad Super Special is one of two remaining stages from 2008. The
rest are a mixture of brand new routes and tests used in previous years
when the rally went further north.
The action begins with a super special stage at Karlstad’s trotting
track on Thursday evening and the test also ends Friday’s opening leg,
which journeys to the rally’s most northerly point. The second leg
includes a short sprint stage on the edge of Hagfors and the final day
is based east of the town. In total drivers tackle 21 special stages,
covering 345.15km, in a route of 1879.23km.
Who’s
going to win?
It’s the opening round of the season, and an event which traditionally
favours Scandinavian snow-driving specialists, so it’s an extremely
tough one to call. When you factor in five previous WRC snow winners
(Loeb, Solberg, Latvala, Hirvonen and Gronholm) and three World Rally
Champions (Loeb, Solberg and Gronholm) it gets even more complex.
Going on the pace they showed on the most recent rally in Wales,
Hirvonen and Loeb must be the two favourites for victory – with Loeb’s
win on snow in Norway last season edging him slightly ahead of his
Finnish rival. But with minimal changes made to their cars in the
off-season, there’s every reason to think the pair will start this
season as closely matched as they ended last year’s.
In identical machinery as their team-leaders, the factory number two
drivers Dani Sordo and 2008 Sweden winner Jari-Matti Latvala are both
more than capable of challenging for victory too. And at this stage in
the season team orders really shouldn’t come into play.
Sweden marks the start of Petter Solberg’s bid for a second WRC title,
and few would doubt the Norwegian’s determination to succeed. Will
having the same car as six time champion Loeb be enough for him to mount
a serious title challenge? He hasn’t had a lot of practice in the car,
but snow is a surface he’s right at home on.
Also in a top car – a Ford Focus RS WRC – is double champion Marcus
Gronholm, the Finn tempted out of retirement to drive one of the Stobart
team entries. Sweden is a rally Gronholm loves – so much so that he
named his restaurant after one of its stages.
With learning the name of the game for WRC newbie Kimi Raikkonen, it’s
unlikely we’ll see any opening round heroics from the 2007 Formula One
World Champion. But you never know…
Tyres
Pirelli return to the championship’s with the control tyre. The
regulations dictate the use of just one pattern for the majority of WRC
events, and for Rally Sweden the chosen rubber is Pirelli’s ‘Sottozero’,
which runs on a normal 15-inch gravel rim.
Each 205/65R15 tyre is equipped with almost 400 7mm tungsten-tipped
studs to penetrate the snow and bite into the ice beneath. Teams are not
allowed to hand-carve additional cuts into the rubber in the event of
heavy snow and each car can carry two spares.
Event
Information
Date: February 12-14, 2010
Round: 1 of 13 FIA World Rally Championship
Based: Karlstad, Sweden
Stage surface: Snow covered gravel
Total stage distance: 345.15kms
Number of stages: 21
Longest stage: 24.63km Vargåsen (SS9/SS13)
Service Park: Hagfors
Time Zones: GMT + 1 hour
Sunrise: Karlstad 11 February 2010: 07:53
Sunset: Karlstad 11 February 2010: 16:48
Engines: The engines used in Sweden will be used again in Jordan and New
Zealand.
Titles for
which the rally counts
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers & Co-drivers
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
FIA WRC Cup for Teams
FIA Production Car World Rally Championship for Drivers & Co-drivers
FIA Super 2000 World Rally Championship for Drivers & Co-drivers
Timetable
Thursday 11/2
SS1 – Karlstad Super Special Stage1 – 20:00
Friday 12/2
SS2 – Likenäs1 – 08:18
SS3 – Viggen1 – 09:41
SS4 – Torntorp1 – 10:51
Service Hagfors 11:40
SS5 – Likenäs2 – 13:33
SS6 – Viggen2 – 14:56
SS7 – Torntorp2 – 16:29
Service Hagfors 17:08
SS8 – Karlstad Super Special Stage2 – 20:00
Saturday 13/2
SS9 – Vargåsen1 – 07:58
SS10 – Sågen1 – 09:46
SS11 – Fredriksberg1 – 10:42
SS12 – Hagfors Sprint1 – 11:58
Service Hagfors – 12:38
SS13 – Vargåsen2 – 13:41
SS14 – Sågen2 – 15:34
SS15 – Fredriksberg2 – 16:30
SS16 – Hagfors Sprint2 – 17:46
Service Hagfors 18:16
Sunday 14/2
SS17 – Rämmen1 – 07:52
SS18 – Värmullsåsen1 – 08:28
Service Hagfors – 09:21
SS19 – Lesjöfors – 10:51
SS20 – Rämmen2 – 11:23
SS21 – Värmullsåsen2 – 12:52
FUCK ISRAEL 
My prediction 1. Loeb 2. Hirvonen (that’ll be a close battle!) 3. P.Solberg 4. Gronholm 5. Sordo 6. Latvala 7. H.Solberg 8. Ogier with Kimi getting a top 10 finish but no points
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Hmmm, sounds realistic Michael. Kimi being Kimi might surprise us and get some points hopefully!I dunno if these quotes are repeated from previous interviews at the WRC launch but whatever!http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6771473/raikkonen-revelling-in-new-challenge/
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Really looking forward to seeing ken and kimi in the wrc this year great additions to the sport. I can see Kimi having a slight advantage despite Ken having more experience rallying. Also Kimi will be competing in more rounds this year than him which will help him a lot. I think Kimi will get on with Ken a lot this year being into extreme sports and all that :D. Perhaps we will see Kimi compete in the x-games!
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Ken Block is awesome! I’ve followed him for a while now…and having watched some of his interviews I think he’s such a fantastic humble character. Is anybody else just loving the King of Racing status Kimi is getting from all of the WRC paddock? All drivers genuinely appreciate his ability and think he’s fab 😀 FINALLY the iceman gets some appreciation! That’s the great thing about WRC, no big egos…they are all so friendly and appreciate eachother’s talents. I’d like to say a big thanks to Evenstar once again, for not letting Kimi’s exit from F1 affect how well us fans are kept updated of Kimi’s latest activities! It’s especially difficult considering the small media coverage for WRC compared to F1, so thanks Evenstar! Once again you’re doing an admirable job 🙂 Quick question for anybody in the UK, what are the best channels (on sky) for the WRC coverage? I know Dave, Motors TV are definately doing it…but is Eurosport doing it too? I think Dave only does the one highlight show for the whole rally, where as MotorsTV is doing highlight shows for each day’s coverage…but I’m not sure what their quality will be like.This is what we’ve been waiting for guys! Kimi’s season starts in a matter of days 😀
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@Sultan Rana, Looks like Dave and Motors TV will be your best bet. I know Eurosport used to cover WRC but not seen them do it for a while now. If they intend to show any, it won’t be this weekends event anyway, not with the Winter Olympics starting, and if Sky do anything at all it’ll probably be in one of their motorsport highlight shows. Unfortunately rally is not really conducive to being shown live as it’s not ‘racing’ as such, just time trials.
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"what are the best channels (on sky) for the WRC coverage? I know Dave, Motors TV are definately doing it…but is Eurosport doing it too? I think Dave only does the one highlight show for the whole rally, where as MotorsTV is doing highlight shows for each day’s coverage…but I’m not sure what their quality will be like."Motors tv have taken over from eurosport. Motors TV will be showing 1 hour highlights each night of the rally, and as you say Dave shows 1 hour highlights of all the rally on a sunday. Will be interesting to see what Motors TV coverage is like but after the WRC signed a load of new TV contracts I’m quite hopeful it’ll be good.
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