About - Commitee - Events - WCMC Home - Photo's - Clubstuff - club championship -
Members Vids - Stobart Motorsport -
Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team
Rally Sweden
STOBART SCOOP POINTS IN SWEDEN
February 14, 2010
A healthy points haul and a stunning stage win marked a fine start to the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship for the Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team.
Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson finished the opening round of the season in sixth and seventh overall, securing a triple points finish for the Cumbrian squad. Former world champion Marcus Grönholm scored manufacturer points, a stage win and a string of top five stage times for the team despite technical problems and a puncture forcing him out of contention for a top ten spot.
After the rally officially opened with a Super Special stage in Karlstad on Thursday evening, the first full day on Friday saw 55 starting crews take on 126.34km of competitive stage distance in sub-zero temperatures. The three Stobart Ford Focus RS WRCs of Grönholm/Rautiainen, Solberg/Minor and Wilson/Martin started well and ran inside the top ten throughout the morning loop of three stages. However, in the afternoon there was plenty of drama as the stage surfaces deteriorated and much of the snow and ice was scraped away.
Stobart’s Grönholm suffered a setback when his Ford Focus RS WRC cut out mid-way through the 21.28km SS6 Viggen stage. He lost ten minutes but did get going again and recovered to go fourth-quickest on the following test. Henning Solberg ran well until a small off on the 19.21km SS7 Torntorp, then a change of gearbox back in service added a lateness penalty of 30seconds before he left for the evening’s Super Special. Matthew Wilson also lost time after stalling at a corner on SS6 Viggen and having Petter Solberg hit the rear of his Ford Focus RS WRC. Despite the damage caused by the incident Wilson went on to finish the day in eighth.
On Saturday Marcus Grönholm started the day’s 117.76km looking to climb back up the leaderboard to join team-mates Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson in the top-ten. He went second-fastest on the 14.23km SS10 Sagen, his favourite WRC stage, and fourth-quickest on the 18.15km SS11 Fredriksberg. However, his hopes of a comeback were dashed when he suffered a puncture on SS13 Vargasen and lost another five minutes.
Despite difficult road conditions putting real pressure on the special Pirelli SottoZero snow tyre used by all the crews, the Stobart team fared well in later stages. Grönholm took a fantastic stage win on SS14 Sagen and Matthew Wilson went sixth-fastest. Henning Solberg lost time due to opting not to change his tyres prior to the stage but still managed to complete the day sixth overall, while Wilson was just behind him in seventh. Marcus Grönholm’s luck ran out again, and after overshooting a junction and hitting a snow bank he lost his light pod and dropped to 29th.
The final day of Rally Sweden on Sunday featured 101.05km of stage distance over five tests. Grönholm started in fine fashion for Stobart by going third-quickest through SS17 Rämmen, while Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson continued to cruise towards good points finishes. Grönholm then went second-fastest on 10.49km SS19 Lesjofors as he revelled in the thick snow-covered surface of the test. Meanwhile, Solberg and Wilson enjoyed clean runs through the final loop to finish inside the top ten, chalk up their first points of 2010 and take a solid result from an extremely tough rally.