Suzuki driver P-G Andersson finished second in the two-wheel drive class on round three of the Swedish Rally Championship last weekend, the Vännäs Rally. The event, held in the north of Sweden, was affected by unusually warm weather - which meant that stages were covered in ice and mud rather than the expected heavy snow.
The changing conditions made tyre choice extremely complicated, and P-G lost half a minute by going out on the wrong tyres over the three longest stages of the rally. This deprived him of the chance to make it a hat-trick of victories, after winning his class on the opening two rounds of the Swedish Championship.

"It was a real pity I made the wrong tyre choice, but I'm still happy to finish second," said P-G. "Conditions were very unpredictable, and by the time I realised I had made a bad tyre choice, it was too late. I was getting a lot of understeer, and I had to drive quite carefully in order to make sure of staying on the road. We were fast when we had the right tyres on, but by then we had lost too much time to stand a chance of winning."

Apart from the bad tyre choice, P-G's Suzuki Ignis was entirely reliable throughout all two days of the event. It required only routine maintenance at service, and P-G retains a dominant championship lead in the Swedish Championship's two-wheel drive category.

"I'm very happy with the way the season has gone so far," said P-G, who also forms part of Suzuki's four-car line-up on the Junior World Rally Championship. "The Ignis has surpassed all my expectations, and shown itself to be extremely fast and consistent."

Suzuki Sweden's PR Manager, Torbjorn Lundgren, commented: "It's been another impressive drive from P-G on the Vännäs Rally. It's not so important that he didn't win the event - instead he has been very mature and scored the most points that he possibly could under the circumstances. He has a very good championship lead now, and titles are won on consistency as well as speed. I think P-G has proved that he has both."

The next round of the Swedish Championship is in May, and will be run on loose gravel rather than ice and snow. In the meantime, P-G rejoins Suzuki's Junior World Rally Championship squad for some testing before the Acropolis Rally.