Daniel Carlsson took third place on the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, round two of the FIA World Rally Championship, which finished in Karlstad this afternoon. Carlsson and co-driver Bo Holmstrand just defeated their fellow Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 crew, Gigi Galli and Giovanni Bernacchini, taking the final podium place by seven seconds. The rally was run in ideal conditions for its duration. Heavy snow a week before the start made for perfect roads. The temperatures ranged from –6 degrees to –21 degrees in places, ensuring this was a great winter rally.
Carlsson and Galli were embroiled in their own private battle for all three days of the Swedish Rally. They fought hard for each and every one of the 349 kilometers, swapping positions no less than seven times and were never more than 8.4 seconds apart during the three legs. Neither driver suffered any significant technical problems with their Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05s or made any mistakes. It was a fascinating and captivating encounter that kept everybody engrossed throughout.
It was Galli who held the advantage for the first leg, but Carlsson moved past and into third overall on the first stage on Saturday. Galli immediately retook the place on SS8, before Carlsson took it back on SS11 and held it overnight. Galli redoubled his effort and went third overall again on the second stage this morning – but he would only hold the position for one stage before his rival was ahead again. Galli managed to get back past in SS17, only for Carlsson to beat him on the next and hold the place until the finish. It was incredible.
"This has been the most amazing rally," said Carlsson. "I can’t believe it. To start with I was so happy just to be able to match Gigi’s pace, but then we started to fight with him and this incredible battle started. There has been nothing between us all of the time. I have really enjoyed driving the Lancer so much. I had never driven it before, but straight away I felt so comfortable with the car. This is the best result of my life."
Galli was disappointed at missing out on third place, but was delighted with his own fourth position, beating his previous best World Rally Championship finish (Rally Australia, 2005) by one place. Galli said: "It has been a real battle all of the way. I had a little experience of this event from last year – and it’s a rally which I really enjoy. Daniel has gone very well throughout the event. It shows how strong the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05 remains in the World Rally Championship."
Behind that overall battle, Finland’s Juho Hanninen and Marko Sallinen took a convincing win in the Group N category, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. Hanninen, the reigning Finnish Group N champion, was delighted with his result as this was his first ever round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Hanninen had spent the first leg of the event settling in to the rally, having never competed in Sweden before, but once he was comfortable with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and the surroundings, he reeled in then Group N leader and local driver Patrik Flodin (Subaru), passing him in stage six. It was a close battle between Hanninen and Flodin through Saturday morning, until the Swede dropped time on the Likenas stage. After that ninth test, Hanninen held a half-minute lead from Jukka Ketomaki (Subaru) and remained out front until the finish on Sunday afternoon.
"I am so happy with this result," said Hanninen. "We haven’t had any major problems through the whole rally – the car has been very good. On stage eight, we caught the car in front of us: he had spun, but it didn’t cost too much time. We had a bit of trouble on the second run through the longest stage of the event – Vargasen – when the tires were losing some of their studs and then some of our pace notes weren’t working so well on a couple of stages this morning."
Ketomaki was second in Group N with Oscar Svedlund (Subaru) third, while 1984 world champion Stig Blomqvist was fourth in a Subaru. This was the Swedish driver’s 40th attempt at his home round of the World Rally Championship.
Ford driver Marcus Gronholm won the event overall, taking his second consecutive victory after his success on the Monte Carlo Rally in Monaco two weeks ago. Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb also repeated his round one result, placing his Citroen in the runners-up spot, ahead of the leading Mitsubishi of Carlsson.
The next round of the FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Mexico (March 3-5) also qualifies for the Production Car World Rally Championship.
