After much confusion and frustration in the days and hours leading up to the closure of entries, it has now been confirmed that Petter Solberg and Kimi Raikkonen will both be entered into the WRC’s season-opening Rally Sweden taking place next month, reports EVAN ROTHMAN.
Entries for the event closed on Monday 10 January at 15h00, and organisers of this snow rally received a healthy 130 entrants from 20 nationalities. The very last entry to be received by organisers, only minutes before 15h00 was that of Kimi Raikkonen. It appears that Raikkonen will compete as part of the ICE 1 Racing WRC Team and will pilot a Citroen DS3 WRC for this event. It is not known whether he will compete on more events on the WRC calendar this season for this team.
Petter Solberg too will drive a Citroen DS3 WRC and he and co-driver Chris Patterson will fly the flag of the Petter Solberg World Rally Team (PSWRT). He has stated he will contest the full WRC calendar, but needs more funds to be able to do so.
Along with these two competitors, the reigning World Rally Champions Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena have been entered. The Citroen Total World Rally Team will run Citroen DS3 WRCs for the champions as well as for Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia in the second team car.
The BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team will once again see Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen and Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Anttila challenge the mighty Citroens in their M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta RS WRC machines. Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr will drive the team’s third car at this event.
Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team sees Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin take up the challenges presented by the snow and ice in Sweden in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC, as will Ken Block/Alex Gelsomino (Monster World Rally Team) in their Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Another Ford entrant is Dennis Kuipers/Frederic Miclotte (FERM Power Tools World Rally Team) and Norwegians Mads Ostberg and Henning Solberg both looking for a solid top eight positions at the end of this rally in their Fiesta RS WRCs.
A total of 12 WRC cars have been registered, with eight of them from M-Sport (Fords) and four Citroen DS3 WRCs.
The full entry list can be found HERE.