Oliver Solberg and Hayden Paddon completed the opening day of BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia just 3.3sec apart following an action-packed nine stages of Sweden’s round of the FIA European Rally Championship.
The defending ERC Champion Paddon (BRC Racing Team Hyundai i20 N Rally2) led the pack following his fastest time through the mixed-surface BAUHAUS super special stage on Thursday evening. Although the New Zealander maintained his advantage after SS2, Swede Solberg moved in front on SS3 by 3.1sec aboard his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Back-to-back stage wins for Paddon trimmed that gap to 1.4sec at the midday service halt in Karlstad before Solberg responded with the best time in SS6 to lead by 2.6sec.
But with Solberg experiencing the worst of the localised rain on SS7, Paddon headed to the repeat of the Colins stage – complete with the iconic Colin’s Crest jump – 1.3sec off the lead.
While Paddon leapt a rally-best 44 metres, Solberg was 1.1sec quicker, which gave him a margin of 2.4sec heading into the final stage of the day. Beating Paddon’s time by a slender 0.9sec through the 12.09-kilometre run ensured Solberg lead the chasing pack by 3.3sec in a Pirelli-one two.
“The times are so close and every little gap is important,” Solberg said. “I thought I had left-rear damage for a while [on SS9] but it was just so loose with so many rocks and not easy. The feeling today has not been great, I can’t say I’ve been very impressed today but the fight is close. I think the car will suit the roads better tomorrow and we can have a bit of a push.”
“We were trying to push,” Paddon said. “We know when it gets rough it doesn’t quite suit this car as well so we were trying to not lose too much time. It was rough but it was more the big loose rocks that were the problem rather than the extra ruts. We were pushing and trying and tomorrow should suit us better than today.”
Leading positions after Friday:
1. O Solberg / E Edmondson Škoda Fabia RS 41min 21.9sec
2. H Paddon / J Kennard Hyundai i20 N Rally2 +3.3s
3. M Heikkilä / K Temonen Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +12.7s
4. M Franceschi / A Malfoy Škoda Fabia RS +16.9s
5. M Sesks / R Francis Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +20s
6. F Larsen / L Lundgren Volkswagen Polo GTI +21.7s
