The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) moves from the glitz and glamour of
Monte Carlo to the snow-covered scenery of  Scandinavia for the second of
the 16-round series, the Swedish Rally. Starting on Thursday 5 February from
its base in the  university town of Karlstad, the event is the only true
winter rally in the WRC.

While it's not uncommon for crews to compete in temperatures as low as
-30°C, full snow conditions on the event's 19 stages are  by no means
guaranteed. In recent years mild conditions have presented teams with a
challenging mixture of road surfaces, with  everything from hard-packed
snow, ice and sections of frozen gravel. As a result, this year's event is
moving further north in  an attempt to find more consistent snow conditions.

Like Monte Carlo, the Swedish rally is a specialist event, which favours
drivers with experience of the unique conditions.  Totally unlike any others
in the WRC, the snow covered Swedish stages have to be approached in a
different way to the more  typical WRC tarmac or gravel stages. Local
knowledge counts for a lot, and it's telling that since the rally was first
run in  1950, it has been won exclusively by Swedes and Finns.

Experts at 'leaning' their cars against snow banks to guide them round
corners, previous winners of this demanding event have  been highly skilled
at driving on studded tyres at very high speeds. Last year, with an average
speed of 118kph, the Swedish  rally was the second-fastest of the season.
Only Finland, with an average of 122kph was quicker. To cope with the snow
conditions, both Subaru drivers will be using slim Pirelli tyres fitted with
tungsten carbide tipped studs to help bite through  the loose snow and get
maximum traction.

Following a ceremonial start in Karlstad on Thursday evening, the rally
begins in earnest on Friday morning when crews travel  85km north to the
town of Hagfors and the central service area. On Leg One they will tackle
five stages, including Granberget,  which at 52 kilometres is the longest of
the event. Saturday will see the drivers contest a further eight stages,
before the  final six tests on Sunday. The winning car is expected to cross
the finish ramp back in Karlstad at 1638hrs on Sunday.

Ford

The BP Ford Rally Team come into this event leading the manufacturers World
Rally Championship and for this event field Markko  Martin and Finland's
Janne Tuohino as their registered drivers. Francios Duval also competes in a
latest specification Ford  Focus '03 WRC. Duval, not registered for points,
finished 10th in 2002 while Markko fourth, Tuohino 17th.

Markko Martin / Michael Park: Apologies for the lack of quotes.
Janne Tuohino / J Aho: Apologies for the lack of quotes.

Citroen

Citroën's preparation for the second outing of the season included two test
sessions in Sweden. The first took place during the  third week of December
and saw Sébastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz take turns at the wheel at a base
near Arjeplog, on the southern  fringe of the Arctic Circle. For the second
session, near Umea, in the third week of January, the pair was joined by
Philippe  Bugalski, their work focusing on optimisation of the Xsara WRC's
set-up (springs, antiroll bars, differentials). The programme  also allowed
the drivers to acquaint themselves with the latest evolution 'GA' and 'GE'
tyres that make up Michelin's range for  Sweden.

Sebastien Loeb / Daniel Elena: "It's a great rally from the driver's
viewpoint," says Sébastien Loeb. "To have the best chance  of coming away
with a top result, I just hope that the stage conditions won't be as cruel
to me as they were last year because  I'll be first on the road again on Day
1. You've also got to remember that Marcus Grönholm, to mention but him,
isn't going to  be easy to beat on what is one of his favourite terrains. On
the other hand, we posted a fastest time last year, plus two second  bests
and four third fastest times. When the conditions were not unfavourable to
us, we were on the pace. So given that the  Xsara has unquestionably
progressed, I hope I will be involved in the fight for first place. If I am,
anything is possible!"

Carlos Sainz / Marc Marti: "I would dearly love to win this rally.. First of
all, the first 'Latin' to beat the Scandinavians in  Sweden will make
rallying history. Nobody has succeeded in doing it so far. It's also one of
my favourite rallies. I always  prepare for it with great care and then I do
my best to win once it starts. Last but not least, driving in Sweden is
undeniably  one of the biggest thrills you can imagine!"

Peugeot

After its encouraging result in Monte Carlo with the new 307, Peugeot Sport
turns its attention now to Round 2 of the 2004 World  Rally Championship in
Sweden. The French squad has only excellent memories of this spectacular,
high-speed event where it is  unbeaten since 2000! Marcus Grönholm, the man
who notched up three of the Peugeot 206 WRC's four successes in Karlstad,
will be  looking to add to his personal harvest of victories with the 307
WRC. The car is still in its early days yet it has already  given glimpses
of its potential. Freddy Loix, another big Swedish Rally fan, will also be
aiming for a top result in the second  encounter of the season.

Marcus Gronholm / Timo Rautiainen: "I do enjoy this rally... I have a good
feeling in Sweden, even if the stages are rather  quick in places. Our
result in Monte Carlo was quite encouraging. It allowed us to see that the
307 WRC is both competitive and  reliable. Judging by the way our pre-event
testing went, I am very optimistic for Sweden."

Freddy Loix / Sven Smeets: "For me, it's the best event on the calendar. It
really is superb for drivers and I'm very much  looking forward to this
year's rally. Pre-event testing with the 307 went very well and I feel quite
confident,"

Mitsubishi

The all-French crew of Gilles and Hervé Panizzi will be joined by Finns
Kristian Sohlberg and Kaj Lindström, and the team's  focus will be to build
on its successful debut performance in Monte-Carlo.

Gilles Panizzi / Hervé Panizzi: "For me, I have less experience in this
rally because I have only done it one time... Sweden is  too close for any
further development and it's difficult for the engineers to improve the car
or to adapt to different solutions  for this event. I think if we can finish
the Monte, we can finish the Swedish Rally though. I will be looking to
Kristian for  his very good experience in this rally and I hope we can do
the maximum of kilometres to learn even more.

Kristian Sohlberg / Kaj Lindström: "I'm looking forward to the rally as you
might say it's my first event as a real works  driver... We are still
lacking time with testing but we were all very pleased to see Gilles get the
car to the finish in  Monte-Carlo and claim points. This is good for
everyone and helps the engineers gain more data for the on-going development
work. Our objective in Sweden will be to go for the finish and of course it
is a good event for me to start with the team. If  the car works as we hope,
I think we can do some decent times and maybe surprise a few people in some
stages.

Subaru

Petter Solberg, the current World Champion has contested the event five
times previously. Having finished in the points last  year, and with
experience of winter competition gained in his native Norway, Solberg is
looking to improve on his best Sweden  finish of sixth. Driving the second
Subaru entry will be Finnish driver, Mikko Hirvonen. Having finished
eleventh last year on  his first attempt at the Swedish event, the Finn will
be aiming to finish in the top ten and gain further experience in an
Impreza WRC.

Petter Solberg / Phil Mills: "I've stopped thinking about Monte Carlo
already. It was good to have got some points in the bag,  but my focus is
Sweden now - 100 per cent - and I'm really looking forward to it. It's the
closet event to my home country and  so there's going to be a hell of a lot
of Norwegians there, even more than there were in Monte I think! It's going
to be an  interesting event, the Sweden test went well and I think I've
worked out why I didn't do so well last year - but I'm not saying  just yet!
We have an improved tyre for this rally and the setting of the car has been
changed, I think it'll be a good event."

Mikko Hirvonen / Jarmo Lehtinen: "Monte Carlo was good for me. I gained so
much from the event, got to know all the people in  the team and saw how it
all worked. The atmosphere in the Subaru service area felt good and that
will definitely make it easier  for me from now on. I'm learning all the
time about the car, picking up small things about how it handles on ice,
snow and  tarmac etc. and that is building my confidence. It's a case of the
car becoming part of you and I'm definitely feeling part of  the car now, so
it's good. I finished the Sweden rally in eleventh position last year, and
coming from nearby Finland I'm used  to driving in snowy conditions. We'll
have to see what happens. I'm not thinking about the result so much, but I'm
going to  push, try to do as well as I can and get some points for the
team."



The group N category in the Rally Swedish will see the toughest group N
battle in the history of this event. And this even though the group N
category always saw one of the strongest battles in the Swedish event year
in, year out. In 2004 there are as many as 43 participants including drivers
as Toshi Arai, who came second in the PWRC last year, Daniel Sola, Karamjit
Singh, Mark Higgins, Alister Mc Rae & Jani Paasonen both WRC driver 2002 in
Mitsubishi, Manfred Stohl, Oscar Svedlund winner group N in GB 2002 and
Sweden driver Kenneth Bäcklund winner of group N in Rally Sweden five times.
So Stig Blomqvist, who won his first Swedish rally no less than 33(!) years
ago, will have a rough time to defend his group N victory last year in this
company.

-fia/wrc-


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