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Rally Sweden Day 2 - Nikara Settles Into A Rhythm
Jarkko Nikara started first on the road for Rally Sweden following an accident during yesterday's free practice which damaged his car forcing him to miss qualifying.
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Despite sweeping the surface clear for the following drivers, Nikara set impressive times in his John Deere supported MINI John Cooper Works WRC on the first two stages with an eighth and then a ninth place in a very strong field of more experienced drivers. Unfortunately, Nikara ran wide on stage three and beached the car in a snow bank. With only two spectators to help, he and his co-driver had to dig themselves out. As a result, he lost 42 minutes, plus a further three minute in time penalties for a late check-in to control, dropping him to the back of the field.
Despite the incident Niakra's MINI was undamaged and continued to run faultlessly for the rest of the day's stages.
"Jarkko started off very fast, perhaps a little too quickly given the fact he was running first on the road, and underestimated how little grip there was," said Prodrive WRC Team principal, Dave Wilcock. "As a result on stage three, he ran wide and went into a snow bank. Unfortunately for Jarkko it was an area with few spectators, otherwise he would probably only have a lost a couple of minutes.
"For the rest of the day he has been regaining his confidence and slowly picking up the speed. Still, while we are all really disappointed to have lost so much time, he has been setting a strong pace in only his second WRC outing. Our benchmark for him is Henning Solberg and the two have been trading times around the top ten for most of the day. Tomorrow I am sure he can do the same."
Jarkko Nikara said: "We had a good feeling in the car today, but on stage three I felt a bit of understeer and ran wide hitting the snow bank. After that, I lost some confidence. We will make some small changes to the car tonight as I only had a short time to test the car before the event and we will try to set some top ten stage times tomorrow and gain more experience. I still have a bit of a fever so I hope to get a good night's sleep and feel better in the morning."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in WRC Rally News 2010: |
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