Karlstad, Sweden: The Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team driver Shaikh Khalid Bin Faisal Al Qasimi had an early taste of what awaits him at Rally Sweden, to be held on February 11-14 following testing in very trying and changing conditions.
Shaikh Khalid, who has had five previous outings in Scandinavian conditions, is aware the challenges will be huge this weekend. Following the test behind the wheel of his DS3 WRC, he said: “It has been a difficult test day; it rained, which was followed by snow. The 4.5km road surface we were testing on changed constantly which threw up new challenges. We were unable to reach the ideal settings easily due to imperfect condition, as the road had no ice or snow except for a bare 200m. Studded tyres are compulsory in Rally Sweden, but in these conditions and after 15km the tyres wouldn’t help at all (on gravel and muddy roads). At one point, I spun 360 degrees at high speed twice because of that.”
Shaikh Khalid added that each run was different to the previous one and with the rain the settings had to be changed. “After the rain, it started to snow so we had to find a different setting. We had very good traction with the new set of tyres but not for long and the studs got damaged quickly. Under the given conditions, we did in the end manage to reach the best possible setting. The challenge will be huge, but at least we now know what is awaiting us this weekend. We need to be cautious and adopt a strategy according to the changing conditions,” revealed Shaikh Khalid.
Some stages had been cancelled due to the inclement weather, but the rally is still expected to offer an exciting weekend. The 21 scheduled stages have been reduced to 13 and the competitive distance cut from 331.21km to 241.48km.
