Andersson makes history with first ever S-WRC class win

Swedish guest driver P-G Andersson and co-driver Anders Fredriksson scored the first ever S-WRC victory in their new Skoda Fabia on the opening round of the 2010 Super 2000 World Rally Championship for Drivers, Rally Sweden. Andersson streaked into the lead from SS1, winning the class by a comfortable 47.3 seconds.

Second on the podium was Finnish driver Janne Tuohino in his Ford Fiesta, followed by Martin Prokop (CZE) in a similar car in third.

On day one Andersson dominated with a clean sweep of stage wins, ending the day 59.2 seconds in front of fellow competitors. Over days two and three, Tuohino, Prokop and Norwegian Skoda driver Evyind Brynildsen, the youngest competitor in this year’s S-WRC, all claimed stage wins from the storming Swede.

Tuohino, lying second from SS2, clawed back 11.9 seconds over the course of days two and three, but despite spirited opposition, Andersson’s lead remained uncontested.

Rally Sweden did however prove the perfect start to the season for Tuohino who, unchallenged in his second place, and finishing two minutes and nine seconds in front of Prokop, came top of the S-WRC drivers registered for the entire season. Following a problem with a misting windscreen due to an overactive hot air vent at the beginning of day one and then the loss of his rear window in SS7, Tuohino put in consistently good times throughout the event, even taking four stage wins from Andersson.

Convinced he could not compete with the Scandinavian drivers at the head of the field on a snow rally, Prokop was pleased to finish on the podium, settling for a satisfying third place. He lost time in SS2 after missing a corner and stalling his Fiesta, but stepped up his pace throughout the day, finishing only 25.9 seconds behind second-placed Tuohino and a comfortable 1min 20secs in front of Sandell in fourth. On SS16 at the end of day two he even clocked a time of 2min 14secs and put his Fiesta on top of the stage results – beating all the WRC crews.

1st – P-G Andersson, Skoda Fabia Super 2000: “I am very happy. Although I was a little cautious on day two, because I wanted to hold onto my lead so much. On day three we didn’t have any problems and I came in first in my home country in the first ever rally of the S-WRC.”

2nd – Janne Tuohino, Ford Fiesta Super 2000: “P-G ran away with the competition from day one. After that my focus was just to win stages and come in second. I got four stage wins and I stayed in second from SS2.”

3rd – Martin Prokop, Ford Fiesta Super 2000: “I was very happy driving this rally. I knew I couldn’t catch P-G and Janne, so I could relax and enjoy the event. I got good points towards the Championship and in a snow rally which isn’t easy for me. Now I can look forward to the rest of the season.”