Will the Volkswagen realm continue in Sweden?

Since 2013 the Rally Sweden has only seen Volkswagen drivers fighting for the first place. Sébastien Ogier, two times winner, and Jari-Matti Latvala will be the favorites for the 2016 edition. Will the last minute changes of the Rally Sweden impact the drivers’ behaviors?

The second rally of the season will take place on February 11^th to February 14^th through the Scandinavian countries’ snow and black ice, Sweden and Norway. These meteorological conditions are not as good as they should be because of the temperatures. The 331.21 kilometers of this rally were planned to be divided into 21 special stages. Because there is no more snow in some areas of the roads, the leg lessened to 241.48 kilometers into 13 special stages.

The cancelling of the power stage on Thursday night in Karlstad leads to the diffusion of the Vargåsen special stage on Saturday, with the famous “Colin’s Crest”, the jump that took after Colin McRae’s name.

Volkswagen will try to comfort its supremacy over the Rally Sweden thanks to its experimented drivers in the name of Sébastien Ogier (Winner in 2013 and 2015), ranking first for now, Jari-Matti Latvala (Winner in 2014), and Andreas Mikkelsen, ranking 2^nd .

The Abu Dhabi Total WRT will present three drivers as well with Kris Meeke, who was the only one driving in Rally Monte-Carlo, and the experienced Khalid Al-Qassimi, who will participate to his sixth snowed rally. Finally, Craig Breen will be driving his first rally with a WRC.

As for M-Sport drivers, each one of them has different goals. On one side, Mads Ostberg wants to show off his skills at home on a well-known rally. On the other hand, Éric Camilli will try to gain experience for his first Rally Sweden where he will have to adapt quickly to the snowing roads.

Finally the Hyundai Motorsport decided to bring three new cars for this Rally Sweden, the i20 New Generation WRC. Thierry Neuville, while driving his Hyundai Shell WRT will try to better his 5^th place from the previous edition and to closer the gap with 2^nd place, Andreas Mikkelsen. Haydon Paddon will drive a Hyundai Shell WRT as well and Dani Sordo will participate to his first Rally Sweden for Hyundai with his Hyundai Mobis WRT.