After the 85th Rallye Monte-Carlo opened the 2017 World Rally Championship season, world’s best rally drivers are on their way to another special event on the WRC calendar. It’s Rally Sweden, the only snow event in the world’s premier rally competion for decades, since 1965, when Swedish rally was moved from its original summer date to winter.

For the 65th edition of Rally Sweden 46 crews are on the entry list. Of course, much of the interest is directed towards 2017-spec World Rally Cars which had thrilling premiere in the opening event at Monte-Carlo. Compared to the season’s first rally with ten ’17-spec WRC machines, one more such a car is announced for Sweden.

A new name on the list is Norwegian Mads Ostberg, who will run Ford Fiesta RS WRC for Adapta Motorsport, in cooperation with M-Sport World Rally Team. Other entries will be the same as in Monte-Carlo, with one exception in Citroen’s team.

Craig Breen will took over #8 C3 WRC for his debut with new car, Stephane Lefebvre will drive last year’s #15 DS3 WRC. It’s still unsure which car Henning Solberg will drive, as he’s listed with Ford Fiesta RS WRC, so it’s possible to get one more newest car on the starting line.

The competition in the WRC 2 championship goes a step further as fourteen crews announced participation, three more than in Monte-Carlo. M-Sport’s Eric Camilli and Teemu Suninen lead the pack with Fiesta R5s. Škoda Motorsport listed only Swedish driver Pontus Tidemand. One more Swedish driver in the WRC 2 category would be Emil Bergkvist with Citroen DS3 R5.

From the other side of the border three strong Norwegians are coming: Ole Christian Veiby, Anders Grondal and Eyvind Brynildsen. From the Eastern Europe two Russians are coming and one Polish driver, while from the far East are coming two Japanese drivers who will drive Fiesta R5s for Tommi Makinen Racing.

Among other drivers with R5 cars, who are not eligible for WRC 2 points, the most interesting entry is the second-placed driver in the 2016 World Rallycross Championship Johan Kristoffersson. His car would be Škoda Fabia R5. Kristoffersson participated last year at Rally Sweden, finishing 21st overall and 11th in RC2 class with Škoda Fabia S2000.

Rally Sweden will start with a shakedown in the morning hours of Thursday, February 9. In the evening, the real racing will start with SSS1 Karlstad. Rally consists of eighteen stages with total length of 331.74 kilometers.[/show_more]

2017 Rally Sweden entry list

No Team Car Gr/Class Driver / Co Driver 1 M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC WRC Sebastien Ogier – Julien Ingrassia 2 M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC WRC Ott Tanak –Martin Jarveoja 3 DMACK/M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC WRC Elfyn Evans – Daniel Barritt 4 Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC WRC Hayden Paddon – John Kennard 5 Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC WRC Thierry Neuville – Nicolas Gilsoul 6 Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC WRC Dani Sordo – Marc Marti 7 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën C3 WRC WRC Kris Meeke – Paul Nagle 8 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën C3 WRC WRC Craig Breen – Scott Martin 10 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC WRC Jari?Matti Latvala – Miikka Anttila 11 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC WRC Juho Hanninen – Kaj Lindstrom 14 Adapta/M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta WRC WRC Mads Ostberg – Ola Floene 15 Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroën DS3 WRC WRC Stephane Lefebvre – Gabin Moreau 16 Eurolamp World Rally Team Mini John Cooper Works WRC Valeriy Gorban – Sergei Larens 17 Ford Fiesta RS WRC WRC Henning Solberg - TBA 31 M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5 Teemu Suninen – Mikko Markkula 32 Škoda Motorsport Škoda Fabia R5 Pontus Tidemand – Jonas Andersson 33 Citroen DS3 R5 Pierre Louis Loubet – Vincent Landals 34 Printsport Škoda Fabia R5 Ole Christian Veiby - Stig Rune Skjaermoen 35 Ford Fiesta R5 Anders Grondal – Roger Eilertsen 36 Adapta Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 Eyvind Brynildsen – Anders Fredriksson 37 FWRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC WRC Lorenzo Bertelli – Simone Scattolin 38 C-Rally Ford Fiesta R5 Jaroslaw Koltun – Ireneusz Pleskot 39 Citroen DS3 R5 Emil Bergkvist – Joakim Sjoberg 40 M-Sport World Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5 Eric Camilli – Benjamin Veillas 41 TAIF Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5 Radik Shaymiev - Maxim Tsvetkov 42 Ford Fiesta R5 Alexey Lukyanuk – Alexey Arnanutov 43 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 Takamoto Katsuta – Marko Salminen 44 Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ford Fiesta R5 Hiroki Arai – Glenn MacNeal 45 Fergus Greensmith Ford Fiesta R5 Gus Greensmith – Craig Parry 61 Ford Fiesta R2 Louise Cook – Stefan Davis 81 Škoda Fabia R5 Jukka Ketomaki – Jarkko Alanen 82 Ford Fiesta R5 Mattias Jirvellius – Henrik Appelskog 83 Škoda Fabia R5 Johan Kristoffersson - TBA 84 Citroen DS3 R5 Simone Tempestini – Giovanni Bernacchini 85 Ford Fiesta R5 Robert Blomberg – Lars Andersson 86 Ford Fiesta R5 Fredrik Alsdal – Ida Bood 87 Citroen DS3 R5 Joakim Roman – Christoffer Back 88 Škoda Fabia R5 Kjell Sandberg – Göran Lonnmark 89 Peugeot 208 T16 R5 Jose Maria Lopez – Borja Rozada 90 Škoda Fabia R5 Federico Della Casa – Domenico Pozzi 91 Citroen DS3 R3 Andreas Levin – Björn Nilsson 92 Peugeot 208 R2 Taisko Lario – Sami Ryynanen 93 Ford Fiesta R2 Oscar Solberg – Patrik Barth 94 Ford Fiesta R2 Daniel Rojsel – Nicklas Edvardsson 95 Ford Fiesta R2 Lasse Storm – Ulf Storm 96 Peugeot 208 R2 Anders Aberg – Björn Johnsson

Photos: rallysweden.com,