A Positive Experience

Last weekend’s Rally Sweden was by many said to be put in a do or die-situation for the WRC. In my view it lived up to expectations. Whether it was the new regulations, or that Loeb for once had technical problems, I’ll leave for now. Anyway it was a true joy to see rally action till the end – it was five drivers in 15 seconds after two full days of rallying – with Mikko Hirvonen grabbing the win barely a whiff before young comet Mads Østberg. The cars looked and sounded great, too.

The final day also brought some unexpected drama. Sebastien Ogier had dropped to fifth after nudging a snow bank on the penultimate stage but fought back to fourth by winning the WRC’s inaugural Power Stage. His climb up the field was eased after Petter Solberg’s speeding infringement on a public road earlier in the event forced him to surrender his licence to the local police and let his co-driver Chris Patterson drive the remaining special stages.

And more is to come: Although no confirmation has been forthcoming, the Prodrive-run MINI team is set to break cover on Rally d’Italia Sardegna from May 5-8, and also from that rally onwards the Brazil World Rally Team is planning to register a single entry for Daniel Oliveira. Additionally, the Skoda people tussling around the service park in Sweden set rumours ablaze about the return of Skoda to WRC already in 2012 (that is, unless VAG decides to have a go).

So if Rally Sweden was a signal of what lies ahead, we have a lot of fun waiting.