Rovanperä dominates the Shakedown in Sweden

For the first warm-up of the Rally Sweden before the 17 special stages, Kalle Rovanperä put in a great performance.

Published on 24/02/2022 à 13:34

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Kalle Rovanperä during the 2022 Rally Sweden Shakedown © Nikos Katikis / DPPI

For this 68th Rally from Sweden, the Shakedown joins the town of Djäkneböle in Klabböle, 7,59 km separating them. A fast course which promised tight times. In terms of weather conditions. Temperatures are close to 0°C and a mix of rain and snow is falling, providing slippery terrain with little grip for the drivers.

Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) is the first to line up on the starting line. From his first pass, he signed an average of 125,98 km/h. His first time was only beaten by one car, the Hyundai de Thank you for a few tenths. The Finn finishes with a final passage at 3:22.4 which marks the best time of this appetizer.

The morning was more difficult for Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), Craig Breen (Ford) and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota). The Irishman and the Belgian hit a wall of snow which caused them to lose considerable time. For the Japanese, an electrical problem occurred during his first time, he lost almost a minute at the start.

For the Rally1s, the weekend promises to be tight. On 9 of the 10 crews, only 3.3s separate them. This gap announces a tight rally with a very fast profile. To Adrien fourmaux (Ford), the weekend promises to be a little more difficult. The Frenchman is more than 7 seconds behind the best time. Ultimately, Toyota and Hyundai share the first four times of this Shakedown.

Finally, in Rally2, Nicolay Gryazin (Skoda) set the best time (3:33.4) ahead of the two Norwegians Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) and Ole Christian Veiby (Volkswagen) who achieved a similar timer in 3:34.9 on their third pass.