Citroen Total World Rally Team’s Sébastien Ogier has said he already understands he is at a disadvantage with being the first driver on the road on Rally Sweden next weekend.
After winning the opening round of the season in Monte-Carlo on his return to the French team, Ogier will be first on the road in Sweden and could end up acting as a road sweeper with his Citroen C3 WRC.
Speaking ahead of the event, Ogier said: “I hope that we have good conditions so we can enjoy ourselves, although I’m aware that running first is very often a significant disadvantage, due to the layer of snow covering the ice.”
“We’ll have to see how the roads evolve for the second passes, but I fear that with the layer of ice currently on the roads, the gravel will start to appear quite quickly.”
Ogier currently leads the FIA World Rally Championship from Thierry Neuville after defeating the Belgian by just 2.2 seconds last time out and the Frenchman added ahead of next weekend: “Sweden is a rally that I have always really enjoyed. You get a really nice feeling driving the WRCs here. In testing, the feeling gradually improved as we covered more kilometres and as always, we are going to try and do our best.“
Round two of the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship takes place between February 14-17.
