The only pure winter event in the FIA World Rally Championship swung into action in Karlstad tonight with barely a flake of snow in sight. This second round of the series is traditionally characterised by ice-bound roads, huge snow banks lining the tracks and numbing cold. But temperatures in the host city in the Värmland region of central Sweden are several degrees above freezing, just the odd patch of snow remains from last week's falls and the forecast is for rain.
Competition began tonight with a spectacular 1.90km test at the city's trotting track where two cars at a time raced around two laps of the floodlit loose surface circuit. Huge crowds generated an electric atmosphere in the arena as cars powered around long sweeping bends and flew high into the night air over a jump.
BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen were paired with Sébastien Loeb in the top-billing heat of the evening. The Finns' Ford Focus RS World Rally Car beat the world champion by 0.2sec after a thrilling battle to set the third fastest time of the evening.
"It seems strange to be competing in Sweden in February with no snow on the ground," said 27-year-old Hirvonen. "I think tomorrow's special stages will have some snow on the surface. However, the temperatures are so high for this time of year that there is no real ice base beneath and the cars will soon sweep away the snow to get down to the gravel."
Team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were clear winners against Dani Sordo. The Focus RS was 2.7sec faster to record the second best time on the test, 0.4sec ahead of Hirvonen. Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and Michael Orr, driving a third official Focus RS, were paired with Norway's Mads Ostberg. The Scandinavian came out on top and Al Qassimi lies 13th tonight.
The rally continues tomorrow when competitors head into western Värmland for stages close to Sunne that have not been used since 2001. After leaving Karlstad at 08.00 they face six stages before a second pass over the super special stage. They return to the city at 19.36 after 120.24km of action.
