SS2 : Ostberg jumps into the lead

Following Thursday night’s Superspecial, the opening round of the 2011 World Rally Championship resumed on Friday morning with the first of the ‘proper’ stages - Vargasen.

After snow overnight, organisers sent a plough through the stage before the cars but with more snow falling as the crews arrived at the start control, driving conditions were extremely tricky. The temperature was minus four degrees Celsius.

Defending champion Sebastien Loeb was first to tackle the stage in his Citroën DS3 WRC and struggled in the worst of the slippery conditions. “I didn’t make any mistakes. I know I’ll lose time today. Nothing I can do,” he shrugged.

Sure enough, those behind benefited from a progressively cleaner racing line, with Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who was next through, 27 seconds quicker than Loeb. The Finn’s Fiesta RS WRC arrived at the stop control with part of its front light pod missing. “After the snow plough the road is a bit narrower in places than it was on the recce. We clipped a snow bank but it’s nothing serious,” he said.

Latvala’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen beat his time by 15s and looked on course to take the stage win. “That’s good, must be because I can’t see anything and I’m just going flat out all the time,” he said. “It’s hard to know how hard to push - we had lots of moments. Perhaps I should take it a bit more steady.”

But Norwegian youngster Mads Ostberg did even better, going one second quicker than Hirvonen to take the stage victory and the overall lead in his M-Sport Stobart team Fiesta. “Yeah I’m happy with that,” he said. “I should be more cautious but I was so eager to get started. I lost the lines quite a lot of times. Okay it’s more difficult for those in front, but I have to make the most of the advantage. I’ll try to calm down a bit now.”

Kimi Raikkonen spun mid stage and completed 1m 05s slower than Ostberg. Matthew Wilson was 1m44s adrift and reported a steering problem: “When we go sideways it seems to tighten up. There’s no feeling in the wheel. I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

FERM Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Dennis Kuipers lost more than nine minutes after stopping 11km into the stage.

Swedish privateer PG Andersson lost his overnight lead. The Swede completed the stage 1m06s slower than Ostberg. “I touched a snow bank, thought it was okay, but the car turned over,” said the devastated Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver. “There’s no damage to the car but I’ve ruined my chance.”

Standings after SS2: