Testing work pays off for Hirvonen

6th February 2012

By Giles Wade

Mikko Hirvonen reckons the work carried out by his Citroen engineers in testing for Rally Sweden has been vindicated by his victory on the Norwegian championship Rally Finnskog on Saturday.

Hirvonen was using the event as practice driving his Citroen DS3 WRC on snow and ice ahead of the Karlstad-based rally this week, which he is bidding to win for a third year in a row.

After his victory, by more than 30 seconds over Henning Solberg who was making a rare start in an uprated Mitsubishi Lancer, Hirvonen said: "We are very happy to have won, and especially to have beaten the other World Rally Cars competing here. This has confirmed that we found the right set-up in testing. The conditions were similar to those we will have at Rally Sweden, so we’re confident. We have a very positive feeling. The DS3 WRC is genuinely quick in the most extreme conditions."

Mads Ostberg finished third in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Adapta Motorsport team-mate Eyvind Brynildsen was sixth on his debut in a similar car. Factory Proton driver PG Andersson was the top Super 2000 finisher in fourth, while a spin and a puncture restricted Andreas Mikkelsen’s Evenrally Skoda Fabia S2000 to fifth position.