PG Andersson has vowed to throw caution to the wind on the final day of Rally Sweden tomorrow.
The 30-year-old, who held the overall lead after winning Thursday night’s Superspecial stage in Karlstad only to slip back due to a succession of delays, suffered further woe on day two when his Ford Fiesta RS WRC’s powersteering failed two kilometres into stage 12 following a compression.
With no opportunity to make repairs, Andersson had to complete more than 60 kilometres of competitive running with no working powersteering.
“You could turn the car but the thing is it kicks back and the problem is to get the car in to the line again,” said Andersson. “It’s not so bad when the road is wide but when it is narrow and twisty you have to drive over the snow banks to keep a line. It was so hard to hold the car out of the corners, especially in the ruts. It was a real fight just to keep pointing in the right direction.”
Andersson’s navigator, Emil Axelsson, had to resort to operating the handbrake to help his driver complete stage 15.
“I was pulling the handbrake down the ski slope just to get it round,” said Axelsson. “It’s been exhausting. We had to reverse two times on stage 14 and we lost 20-25 seconds. That’s quite a bit and that’s what we are behind Kimi Raikkonen now.”
Prior to Saturday’s final test, the second run of the Karlstad superspecial, Andersson is eighth overall, 5m31s adrift of first place. He insists he won’t hold back on Sunday’s six stages.
“I’m just going to go as fast as possible,” said Andersson. “If I end up on a snow bank or on my roof I really don’t care.”