Month: February 2018

A year after a pile of tyres ruined our hopes, Thierry and I won Rally Sweden after a rather incredible race. We are only the third “non-Nordic” crew to achieve this! 

It’s been snowing a lot here in Sweden, from the first to the last day, making the roads even more tricky.
To win here, you need to be really fast all the time, without taking inconsiderate risks. That’s precisely what we’ve done, pushing hard on Friday to get a good road position the day after.

It did pay off. We took the lead after the third stage and kept it until the end.
On Saturday, despite a spin we increased our lead over our team mate Andreas Mikkelsen and Craig Breen who both had a great rally.

There were 3 tricky stages left on Sunday. But here again, we worked perfectly together and we sign our first victory of the season with an extra two points from the Power Stage. This means we are now leading the championship. This is a great result for the whole team that once again did a top job!

We know this first place means we’ll be first on the road in Mexico, which won’t be easy but that’s part of the game. 

New season, new hopes, new ambitions. As every year, the championship kicks off in Monaco.
I’ve always loved Monte, it’s a massive challenge for the teams and quite possibly the most mythical rally in the world.

Over here, the smallest mistake can cost you the win… and unfortunately this is what happened to us. We lost 4 minutes in the first stage as our Hyundai got stuck in a snow bank. The road was covered in ice and we were probably 5 Km/h too fast… That’s part of the game and that’s rallying.

From that moment, our only target was to move up in the leaderboard. Despite all the tricks, despite a puncture that cost us another 30 seconds on Friday morning, and despite an unfavourable road position on Saturday that made us hit the stages covered in fresh snow…

Thierry drove to perfection, he kept pushing without taking useless risks. The car was perfect all along and the team did a fantastic job, once again. At the end, we end up fifth, with 5 fastest times and 4 Power stage bonus points.

Every single point will count at the end in the fight for the title. It was important to keep calm and move up the overall classification. Job done.

This was my 8th Monte, on top of my 7 historic Monte-Carlo… and I still get goose bumps every time I come here. I do realize how lucky I am to be part of the WRC. It’s a golden era for our sport and I am so proud to be part of this adventure.

Bring on Rally Sweden!