The last
practice session before this evening's official start of Rally Sweden provided
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT with an opportunity to make a few final set-up
adjustments. Back in the Citroën squad for this weekend, Mads Østberg and
Torstein Eriksen confirmed that they had got to grips with the C3 WRC quickly
as they set the second fastest time, whilst Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle, and
Craig Breen and Scott Martin also showed good pace, finishing fourth and eighth
respectively.
This morning's 6.86 kilometre-long
shakedown stage was contested on perfect, snow-covered roads around Skalla.
Lined with big snow banks, and despite being a little bit bumpier than the
stages to be contested over the weekend, it proved to be fairly representative
of what lies in store for the competitors.
The Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT crews completed
five runs with this final practice session also enabling the team to review
various set-up options and build on the work done during the four days of
pre-event testing last week.
The rally is due to start this evening on
the Karlstad racecourse with a 1.90km-long super special stage. However, the
real action gets under way tomorrow with the longest leg of the rally (140.1km
of timed stages), split between Sweden and Norway.
Kris Meeke commented: "At the start
of the shakedown, I wasn't feeling very confident. I felt more comfortable on
the second pass and in the end, my time is fairly competitive. Since last year,
obviously we have learned lessons and improved the C3 WRC. But we know that our
competitors have improved too. So we'll just have to wait for the first few
stage times and see where we stand, especially as road position is going to
have an impact. In any case, I'm pleased with my car. The target for me is to
keep being consistent and try to come away from Sweden with some more points in
the bag."
Craig Breen added: "The start of the
shakedown wasn't easy for us. The conditions were fairly different to those we
had in testing last week and I was a bit short of grip at the rear of my C3
WRC. But we managed to adapt the set-up as we completed more runs, and we
finished on a positive note."
SHAKEDOWN
STANDINGS
1, Neuville / Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC)
4:17.3
2, Ostberg / Eriksen (Citroën C3 WRC) 4:17.6
3, Ogier / Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC)
4:18.1
4, Meeke / Nagle (Citroën C3 WRC) 4:18.3
5, Tänak / Jarveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 4:18.7
6, Mikkelsen / Jaeger (Hyundai i20 WRC)
4:18.8
7, Latvala / Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC)
4:19.0
8, Breen / Martin (Citroën C3 WRC) 4:19.1
9, Suninen / Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) 4:19.2
10, Evans / Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC)
4:19.3
