2011 Rally Sweden
The Rally Sweden 2011 ( officially 59th Uddeholm Swedish Rally ) was the first round of the FIA World Rally Championship 2011.
This started after the new rules event for the first time the new Citroën DS3 WRC cars WRC and Ford Fiesta RS WRC were used. Under the new regulations, there was at this rally also the first host of a power stage, in which the three fastest drivers scored bonus points for the drivers' world championship. The rally was conducted in the provinces of Värmland County, Dalarna County in western Sweden from 10 to 13 February 2011. At this event was also the first of seven rounds of the Production World Rally Championship ( PWRC ) 2011.
- 3.1 final
- 3.2 stages
Routing and conditions
The paddock was set up in Karlstad, where the ceremonial start took place. The stages consisted largely of ice, covered with snow, graveled forest roads. Twenty-two special stages with a length of 350.08 km were launched on schedule. The total length including liaison stages was 2059.89 km.
On the evening of February 10 was a short " spectator special stage " started, which did not affect the boot order the next day. During the night and until the afternoon of February 11th, it snowed 18 hours continuously. The reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb, who was the first sailed the uncleared stages with the number 1, for the following vehicles had an ideal line drawn through the snow and thus lost time on his pursuers.
The second and third stage of the event was carried out at temperatures around -20 ° C under a clear sky and no further precipitation.
Reports
Day 1 ( Thursday, February 10 )
The first special stage of the 2011 season won Per- Gunnar Andersson.
Day 2 ( Friday, February 11 )
After heavy snowfall was Mads Østberg (Ford) before Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) and Petter Solberg ( Citroën) in the lead. Sébastien Loeb ( Citroën) had a hard time in the snow because it had to be the first on the slippery road, respectively. Loeb was after the first day in ninth place with a gap of about 2:48 minutes.
Day 3 ( Saturday, February 12 )
Mikko Hirvonen took over after the tenth special stage the overall lead. In order to win in the Rally Sweden a pentathlon with the pilots Mads Østberg, Petter Solberg, Jari -Matti Latvala and Sébastien Ogier was underway. The first five were after the third day in less than 15 seconds. Sébastien Loeb worked his way to sixth place, he had a backlog of about 1:40 minutes.
Day 4 ( Sunday, February 13 )
Before the last special stage, the leader Hirvonen and Østberg were separated by 4.9 seconds. At the end Hirvonen saved 6.5 seconds to the finish. Ford was able to celebrate with Hirvonen, Latvala and Østberg a triple victory. Best Citroën driver Ogier was fourth, while teammate Loeb was sixth. Kimi Raikkonen ( Citroën) drove to eighth place and won four world championship points.