71. Rally Sweden 2024
15. 2. – 18. 2. 2024, Umeå • Rally Sweden AB • snow - ice 300.10 km • total distance including road sections - 1202.11 km • Other years
Info
SS18
"F***ing good! I've been hunting for this second victory for quite a while. I would like to thank a millions but probably I'll forget many of them. But many thanks to Cyril, he kept me in the team after a very bad second half last year. It's quite a massive contrast from that moment until now. So thanks to the team. And family as well."
"I lost it all on the last couple of corners in the arena. Not so good. Anyway, I guess we can be happy with this result, come the start of this weekend and especially what happened on Friday. Overall we can be relatively happy."
"It's really good for us to be on the podium after coming back to Rally1. Two really hard years have passed but we've never given up. To be on the podium for the first time here in Sweden, it's so special. I have no words. It's just nice."
"We did what we could. It was a challenging weekend for us. I'm happy with the points we got from the weekend. It was a good run from us despite the conditions we faced on Friday. That's what it is."
"It started tricky but I built up my pace and confidence over time. It's normal if you only do one rally a year. This is my best result in Sweden, in the top 10, so I'm satisfied with that. Looking forward to maybe doing another one next year!"
"We learned a lot this week. All kind of conditions. Esapekka was saying in Friday we had the worst conditions he ever saw. Saturday was more enjoyable. Thanks to teh team for the hard work all weekend, I wasn't easy for them, bringing bumpers and so on."
"I didn't drive so well on this stage. I think I could have been a bit faster with two spares, because now one front tire was not optimal. Bit disappointing this weekend, not what we came here to do. Even though EP is from the wrong team I really hope he's going to bring it home. So all the best for EP, it's nice to have a Finnish winner on the rally."
"It's been tricky this weekend to have the kind of pace where we can be fastest. The mistake was very frustrating and after that, it was even more. From my side, definitely too many mistakes to start the season but we can also be a lot better."
"I wanted to take some points but there are no lines. Very difficult to drive. It was quite impossible to follow the lines, totally different from what I wanted. But it's because of my mistake yesterday. This time the result didn't come and I really need to improve for the future for the team. I cannot find any positive myself but I will keep working hard and improving."
"Amazing. What a weekend, with so many people, so much atmosphere. Family and friends have been here. First weekend with Škoda Motorsport, winning like this, it's amazing."
"It was really tricky, somehow way more slippery than I thought. But I'm really happy it was our advantage this time. A really tricky rally. I'm really pleased for second place for me and also for the team. We see the car is fast and reliable, that's the main thing."
"It's very nice. We've been moving up a position once a year, so hopefully in two years we can win."
"This was a good run. I did a good rally for us. I'm not fully happy because we lost too much in yesterday afternoon loop."
"We had a couple of nice stages in the rally but overall it was a big disappointment for me. I was expecting a better result but we were a bit unlcuky yesterday. And we used Friday for testing, and this is the wrong place to test."
"To be honest I'm not happy about this position but with this car, at the moment, I didn't find the balance for the whole race. But at the moment I have to be satisfied but we can push more."
SS17
"It was more better than the first one. We made a big setup change."
"We gave everything we had in this stage and it wasn't enough."
"Just clean, slow, and just try to get through. I'm never stressed - I just enjoy."
"Quite OK - I think it was fairly OK conditons for the second pass. I would say it's the best stage of the rally, defintiely. I was a bit faster than in the morning - I had nicer rhythm. Still not the way I would like to drive. So far it's been in our control so I'm not too stressed about it."
"To be fair, I was trying to forget that we were at this position - I just wanted to enjoy. Still one stage to go, the main goal is to get to this podium."
"Let's see what happens in the next one now,. It wasn't the best run in here, but all OK."
"Not much happier, but a position gained. Compared to Tänak should be also good."
"It was OK - more gravel than I was expecting. I may have used the tires too much, I don't know, because we have only one spare. Let's hope we have OK tires for the last one."
"It's second pass - so it's good luck! I try very hard but there is no line. Taka doesn't want to drive in my line - he's hitting every bank."
"Just end of the stage we had a huge bump and I just lost the front and spun after the bump. We had to reverse and things – it’s not good."
Spin
SS16
"We had a high-speed spin. It wasn't quite a scary moment but it was a moment. I lost the rear on a really high-speed corner and went sideways 100 meters. Luckily nothing happened. But bit too much attack!"
"It felt like a really bad stage for me but that's OK. Hopefully we can catch it back up. I misheard James [Morgan, co-driver], I thought he said 31, so I thought it was game over already!"
Spin
"It's quite fine. We made some tire strategy. We didn't put all the best now on the first one of the day. If we are faster then it's fine."
"What an incredible stage, wow. Full sheet ice, big smile on the face while driving. A clean, enjoyable run. That's it."
"Weather conditions are really enjoyable, I have to say. The grip was really good. Crazy slow...it's worth it."
"For us now it's just to consolidate the podium. We took the points for second positin yesterday. I didn't take any risk. It's OK."
"All OK. For sure the grip is high. I could have done a bit better in places but you have to judge how much to overdrive you notes, it's not easy to find the answer to that."
"I tried. But I'm not very confident in the car. I did what I could. The car is just not turing when I want so I always have to decrease the speed of entry and I end up taking the handbrake otherwise I'll understeer."
"Very good conditions. The stages are all new so I had to be cautious. I enjoyed it. Two more to go."
"After yesterday's off in the last stage it's difficult to find my marks again. I'm hesitating a bit on every braking and every entry of the corner, it's a very fast stage where you need to commit so not ideal. The only thing that matters is that we have the best team of mechanics and they managed to repair everything last night so we could be here again today."
"It would ben ice to take some points. But it's slippery, not so easy to take points because of my [road] position for today. Still I'm trying to enjoy my driving and find something to improve for the future."
"Better grip than I expected, so it was actually quite enjoyabout. On the narrow parts are a bit tricky. I think it can get faster for the guys behind."
"I tried but it's not easy. Not a good run. Maybe switching with the balance, understeer, oversteer. Difficult to understand how it works."
SS15
Mechanical issues
Hit a snow bank in the same corner as Munster
"It's not about the tires. There's an arm in the front was bent and now it's broken completely so we lost a bit because of that. Then I had a spin. Not my day."
Off into snow bank
"I just wanted to be clean through here, the lead is so big. So no risk."
"This was enjoyable now. OK, it's maybe not the most enjoyable stage with all the junctions but there were some corners where I was having fun."
"I just fully locked up and couldn't pull the handbrake or anything because it was fully locked up. I went straight. I just hope I did not slow down Esapekka. I tried to see at the junction if he was there or if he had a message before entering the arena. Sorry to the team, that's not my goal for sure."
"I have seen the video before the stage and I thought it was the corner before. When I realized they were there it was too late. Well, what a good day! A rollercoaster, up and down. But I am happy. We are here, P2."
"Just had zero rear grip. I had to try as hard as we could but not easy. Not ideal."
"It was a good stage for us, I enjoyed it. But it's very tricky, Gregoire stuck in the snowbank so I had to slow down a bit. Anyhow, it doesn't matter much for us."
"Munster was straight in a junction left. It was very slippery, very very slippery, I didn't expect that much."
"It was OK. I think I had a bit worse tires that him. The time was quite OK. The pace was good but the tire makes the biggest difference on this stage."
Off road
SS14
Had to reverse in one corner
"I think we have still studs left for the last one so it was quite OK."
"I think we killed our tires so not so good."
"I was hoping to have some push on this stage but quite soon after start I realised it's bascially gravel all the way through, so I tried to be clever, but it's really, really tricky."
"There is no tires left. Maybe I took it way too careful, but it's full gravel in there. If someone has any tires left, well done!"
"It's almost over - one to go. I've been trying to save the tires the whole afternoon and still be smart in terms of the pace. Let's see, do we have some studs left for the last one."
"There was a lot of gravel sections so I just tried to keep my tires as long as possible. I hope we have given enough tires for the next one. "To be fair, I'm really enjoying it. In the dark especially it's something special."
"It's been good. Obviously this afternoon you have to look after your tires. It was a clean run for us but it's hard to know when it's like this."
"It's quite different conditions from this morning - lots of gravel out there. But actually I enjoyed the run."
"The grip is a bit better than this morning so you could push a bit but the tire was getting a lot of pressure and temperature, and I had quite a moment at high-speed just because the car went straight."
"This one was definitely not easy - it's a full gravel stage almost. You need to take care of the tires a lot. Then maybe 4k into the stage my brakes started to go soft."
"The grip is high but there is no tire for this grip, so I was just very gentle to try to come through."
SS13
"There was a lot of understeering. I think last stage we run out of tires."
"I made a few mistakes at the beginning - it was much more slippy than I was expecting. I'm afraid the tires are already quite dead."
"The previous one was really hard for tires so we had to manage and save tires, so really nice that the time is good."
"I think this was quite OK. I cannot do more clean stage than this one, so let's see how we will manage the tires."
"I don't know what's going on but the car feels quie undriveable at the moment. Very unpredicatable."
"I'm just driving smart - OK, I'm losing a bit of time but who cares?"
"For sure, it's quite tire management. It will be really bad with the tires - we still need them on the last one which will be full ice, so keeping that in mind."
"I'm enjoying the drive but I just want to drive my own rally, and trying to manage the tires."
"Not the best, it's quite difficult now with all this gravel coming through."
"But the road is getting faster and faster so it's not a surprise, because my stage was really bad."
"I think I enjoyed it - all good. The previous stage, I was pushing much less than Taka, but I was close to going out [at the same place]."
"I just cannot keep the rear of the car into the line, so we need to do some adjustment. But I also need to change something from the power because I went into snowbank the stage before"
"Quite OK - lot of cleaning for us in the first cars. The line is so narrow that the guys coming behind will have much wider lines, for sure."
"There's is nothing enjoyable today!"
SS12
"Is it really tricky? But it's very abrasive, like crazy, for the tires. In the beginning, I tried to drive and keep some rhythm but then I realized it's too tough for the tires so I slowed down to save them."
"There was a lot of rocks everywhere on the road. I was scared to get a puncture so I decided to push less in this part. I even thought I had a puncture but no. It's quite rough now, like a gravel stage."
"Quite challenging conditions out there. Lots of snow out there, lots of gravel. I took it steady towards the end for the tyres. We changed a lot the setup seeing how we can improve."
"We stalled the engine at the start and lost around five seconds. Now there's a lot of gravel and rocks coming up. It's very tough for the tires."
"I was expecting with the ruts to have more grip and everything but actually it's the opposite. The rear is always kicking out of the ruts and I don't manage to keep it in there. We wnt very sideways in a snowbank and the front came back, there was a lot of snow coming into the bonnet and stuff so I hope I didn't damage anything. There was a loss of power for sure."
"For sure I think it's been cleaning also a bit. It was really messy for us, no real lines for follow and tough for the tyres. Let's see how much on the next one we need to save the tire."
"Very frustrating to drive like this. First of all the line is so narrow you can only decide if you put left side in or right side in. It's not fun at the moment."
SS11
Puncture
"Really good battle. This was a really tricky stage. End of stage is so, so narrow."
Off road
Spin
"I have a big gap so I don't want to risk anything."
"I was always safe but I don't know what else I should do, to be honest. The time is what it is. We are not touching the banks. The last kilometers were really messy. All the other 25km, no touching."
"It could be my first podium so I need to stay on the road now."
"We scooped some snow on the inside of a corner and it must have gotten into the intake, lost loads of power."
"Not much better to be honest. Just can't get it working. Trying to chase setup every stage. It's not a secret, I only did one shakedown without trouble and didn't have time to confirm some settings. To finish it up, we lost intercom on the last section."
"I enjoyed except the last part which is now full of rocks and ice. The banks are dropping on the road so it's tricky to avoid puncture. The rest is quite nice."
"I don't know why but I stalled the car in the braking so we went a bit to the side of the road, nothing dramatic."
SS10
Puncture
"The front washed out and I was in the snow. Understeering - can't get it to follow as I want."
"I'm relly sorry for Taka. He had great speed last year, also this year maybe even better. A big shame. But these things can happen. The banks can be your friend until you use them too much. It's going to be a long two days."
"Well, it's a crazy rally to be fair. Many things happening. The grip is quite good but it's quite easy to get stuck in the snow bank from carrying too much speed."
"Not the best in here actually. Not carrying the speed I needed to. I'm trying but it's not quite happening."
Accident
"We tried some different settings but a couple of surprises in there with lots of movement, hitting the ground many times. Not much more I can do at the moment."
"What can you do in our situation? In Finland we have a saying - from a stupid head, the whole body suffers."
"We didn't have hybrid in this one as we had such a big compression in the last one that it went into security mode; too much G-force."
"The helicopter, it was waiting in the forest, so no visibility."
SS9
Off road
"A difficult stage. Not a clean run, not a good drive. I was a bit sideways everywhere to be honest. So much loose snow, to find the line is difficult."
"All OK. I was very clean on the narrow road. I could have pushed more and used the banks but better to do it this way."
"The grip was lower than I thought. I was struggling to get the confidence."
"OK, not as smooth as I would like. Grip was not high."
"There was a nice ice layer this morning, so it was better to be first today. But generally I have no traction at all. I'm trying but I just can't brake late and get out of the corner."
"Very slippery and cleaning a lot. A very technical stage."
"It's really tricky. They [Rovanperä and Tänak] really use a lot of the road and even more with the snowbanks. It's difficult to commit."
"It’s a nice stage actually. The snowplow has done a different route than it was on the recce."
"It's not easy to enjoy from our posititon but what we can do?"
SS8
No battery on road section
"It was some misfire on the first straight but aside from that it was probably fine."
"Throughout the loop we were losing pieces [of the car]. But this was a really tricky one."
"I came here expecting nice weather, nice layer of ice, packed snow. Instead, I have a Monte Carlo in Sweden!"
"We need to take the confidence from today and start to concentrate for the rest of the rally. For sure I used the road position advantage clearly in the afternoon. In the morning as well but I also wasn't too slow against Kalle in the beginning, so I'm fairly satisfied with that."
"I tried but a bit too much, making mistakes, overshoot a bit. But still two days to go. I'll keep pushing."
"I expected much better conditions in that stage to be fair. I did two overshoots. The grip is quite low."
"I just tried to get through the day. Ended on a good note, had quite a good stage in there. Looking forward to another day tomorrow, hopefully trouble-free. We'll enjoy it a bit more."
"The grip very different to last night. It'll get better with every car. But it's like that."
SS7
Double puncture
Double puncture
Double puncture
Accident
"It was quite bad conditions of the tires. Grip was quite high but if I want to manage tires on the last stage we'll drive fast but smart. Quite a stable run."
"I guess we're missing the turbo or something. We're cruising quite slowly. Nothing's going our way, is it? But it brings back the old NA2WD drive days - unfortunately not good for the rally."
"That was quite scary. For me it was quite pointless to use the extra lights because it was snowing so hard. Luckily I have the pacenotes so I know a bit where to go. But maybe one of the trickest stages I've ever done."
"I had problems with the handbrake in there I couldn't turn the car in the junctions and after that I lost all of the confidence. I might have taken care of my tyres too much but I got through the day."
Overshoot
"Felt way too slow! Sounds like we did the fastest time so it's OK! The visibility is...bwoah. You can't use all the extra lights so you have to go with a low beam. And when you're driving over 160 it's a bit crazy when you can't see far. But you have to trust the notes."
"Just trying to keep the car dry otherwise we have fog on the windscreen. It was an attempt but I don't think it was very sucessful. But if I avoided 1cm of snow coming into the car it was a success!"
"Oi, oi, oi, oi. That's horrible! To be honest, we went nearly off. I don't know, you cannot see anything. You have to use the extra light but you can't see for the snow and it's very dark."
"To be on the podium for now, I'm really pleased."
"Still the same problem but we carry on. In the stage it's not a problem. It's a fuel pressure problem."
"I'm not really sure what's been going on. But obviously we're opening the road. I can't even see from here to that sign in front of me and ti's this fast. It's a bit bonkers but we're here."
SS6
"Our road position is helping a bit. It's already difficult for us so for the guys in front of us I can't imagine."
"It was quite OK stage, very slippy. Those chicane parts, I was too careful. Let's see what last stage of the loop will bring us."
"We were quite sideways in there so I think we are immediately losing time."
"There's nothing to think about. Just do your best and hope it's enough. It's consistently slippery, that's for sure. It's good fun sometimes, and sometimes your heart is up here [in your mouth]."
"Honestly, all the guys I would like to catch are behind me and will be faster no matter what I do. It's a bit of a meaningless afternoon, I would say. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
"It is tough to understand what kind of speed you should do. You go a couple of centimeters wrong and you're done because you cannot control anything. It's not aquaplaning – it's snowplaning. Even if you are safe you can still lose it. But it feels pretty safe for the moment."
"I have no idea. It's just so f***ing difficult. In this condition I'd prefer it to be like in Junior WRC the year before on a clean road. It's like being in a ball pool when you're a child. There's no grip, just guessing what to do."
"It would be nice to be in front of EP but still we have two days to go. The rally is not only today. I need to think about after. I cannot make a stupid mistake today. Maybe I sacrifice the time to stay on the road."
"It's really difficult. We are driving really slow and careful. As soon as you get a little bit out of the line there's no grip. I don't have confidence, I just want to get through."
"We had an issue, the engine was not running. It's something we had at refuel before. We had to check but obviously, the bonnet wasn't closed properly. Elfyn was at the refuel earlier when our car didn't fire up, so he should know."
"I guess the spirit of competition has gone out the window. So there you go. I don't know. Let's wait to cast judgment on that before we say something we regret."
Bonnet half-open midstage
SS5
Accident
"That's madness. It's impossible to stay away from the banks but luckily they're quite high and tough so they keep you on the road."
"One of my stupidest mistakes ever. I stalled at the start so I lost a lot. So I'm a bit gutted. I think we lost five seconds but it felt like forever."
"I drove smartly. But I think Gregoire doesn't have the experience to know how to drive on these conditions so the line is fully f***ed for me. He's been everywhere. I see there is the line but in the end he's put some snow in it. For sure one of the most challenging snow stages I've done."
"The most difficult conditions I've ever driven in. Literally no grip, snow going over the bonnet. I don't know, just surviving. I feel so slow and still I'm in the snowbank almost getting stuck."
"Grip is nothing! Studs don't work at all. As you can see, more than 10cm of now in some sections. No chance to find the grip, just using the banks and lines. Sometimes you hope there is a bank...it's proper bobsleigh sometimes. I have an Irish co-driver with me so for this stage I need to drive a good rhythm like Craig did. So all good."
"I'm really surprised I did the fastest time, I was so slow. I don't feel like I'm driving, just surviving. There is no line. If you want to do more you are out of the line and lose control of the car. I prefer when it's minus 25 degrees with full ice!"
"It's so bad. It's undrivable."
"The speed is very slow. I was enjoying the drive but I know the time will be proper s***.
SS4
"Not easy. A lot of loose snow on top. Some good sliding action at least!"
"Quite tricky. I knew there was some drama for other drivers in front of me but it's quite a clean stage and we managed."
"We touched a bank quote heavily somewhere around 10kms. I saw Ott had stooped, Kalle is stopped, so it didn't really give much confidence. IT was messy, no grip at all. The time is really bad.
"It was a really close call, to be fair. We were on a really fast corner, flat, nearly 180, it was at the exit."
Changed a puncture
Spin, damaged radiator, puncture
Stopped, damaged radiator
Spin
"Very slippery. But at least we had a nice drive. Not possible to go much faster. The section I thought was more grippy was actually the worst. There's no ice layer, there's gravel under the snow and the snow was really slippery."
SS3
Bonnet pin come loose
"It was horrible driving for me. It was so slippy, I didn't trust the grip so much. And the chicane was way faster than I expected. But otherwise all good."
"It's fun but tricky. Bit difficult to turn the car as well. But honestly we're enjoying it."
"I had some really nasty hits for some stones or whatever. But I was so sure that something was broken, a tire maybe. I was a little too cautious."
"It's such tricky conditions that's it's not easy enough to follow when it's loose. You can't go full sideways because it's so loose. But we try to keep the rhythm."
"As a Spaniard I've never experienced that before. But in the end we're here to enjoy and progress."
"Clean stage, maybe on some braking points I was too early."
"That driving was horrible, embarrasing. I don't know, I was just s***. I need to do better on the next one."
"It's really difficult. With that much snow the grip is very low and we see the others are trying and making different lines."
"It's tricky to find the apex of the corners of every corner. Sometimes I'm wide and touch the snowbanks."
"Very difficult to see. Fresh snow on the sides, you can feel in the car but can't see."
"Just in the first place completely, lost the rear and recovered. Luckily did a 360 and carried on. Bit lucky. Just trying to hold on to it and go."
"It's a nightmare. My wipers are full of s*** so I can't even see at the end of a straight line. The grip is zero. I was driving blind most of the time. I tried to get through somehow."
Spin
SS2
Mechanical
"I tried to be quite clean in there. Still quite low grip so tried to stay away from the snowbanks. But the feeling is really good, so it's a good start."
"No feeling, a lot of understeer. Not easy to drive but it's very tricky."
"It's hard to keep the car on the line. We'll see what the guys behind can do, they have for sure better conditions."
"It was OK. still a bit slippery but was OK stage. It's quite foggy and it's all white but all OK.
"There was one corner where I touched quite heavily and after that I maybe drove a bit too slow."
"I don't know why I don't have a good flow there but let's hope EP isn't faster there."
Today is different, temperature is higher, is is more soft. I'm learning."
"I had big incident here last year but nice stage actually. Car is working well so I had a lot of room to push more. Feels good."
"We tried very hard. Not very comfortable but trying very hard. It's all white so in many places you're just guessing and you're just hoping there's a corner."
"Tricky. Really quite low grip, and difficult to read the conditions. I'd expect it I guess."
"The visibility is close to zero in the fog and everything looks the same."
SS1
MIstake in first corner
"Disappointe by mistake on the last braking."
in snowbank
"On the first braking I overshoot."
"Jumps are crazy, looking for tomorrow."
Off road
"I'm not really happy with my driving. It was slippy on the entry into corners."
"So many people, lights everywhere. It's fantastic."
"For some reason we lost some power."
"Clean stage. This one is always tricky as it is icy."
"Grip is better then I expected, I could be more agressive."
"It is a learning weekend for us. Maybe I was too effective, it means slow."
"Good start, I!m looking for tomorrow."
"Maybe not brave enough, but overall ok."
"We need more traction."