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S-WRC: Wales Rally GB: Red Bull preview

RED BULL AIMS FOR SUPER 2000 TITLE WITH SANDELL Red Bull's Patrik Sandell is aiming to add the Super 2000 World Rally Championship title to the Junior World Championship title that he won in 2006 when he contests the Rally Great Britain this ...

RED BULL AIMS FOR SUPER 2000 TITLE WITH SANDELL

Red Bull's Patrik Sandell is aiming to add the Super 2000 World Rally Championship title to the Junior World Championship title that he won in 2006 when he contests the Rally Great Britain this weekend.

The Cardiff-based event is the final round of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship and three drivers come to Wales with a chance of lifting the title, including Patrik.

Currently the Red Bull-backed Swede is nine points behind the leader, which in some ways makes his life easier as he has no choice but to go flat out for victory. With 25 points on offer for a win, everything is possible.

Patrik has a lot of experience to fall back on as he has contested Rally Great Britain three times before, twice in a Super 2000 car. So far this year he has racked up two victories, in Germany and France, so he knows what to expect.

However, Patrik will also have to contend with the Welsh weather, which is a notoriously tricky variable. At this time of year, there is a remote chance of ice together with a much stronger likelihood of rain and fog. Past experience has shown though that difficult and variable conditions tend to bring out the best in Red Bull's amiable Swede.

"I'm just going to go into this with the aim of enjoying myself and getting the best result possible for myself and Red Bull," said Sandell, who is co-driven by Emil Axelsson. "I don't really feel any pressure because a lot of what happens in the championship depends on other people, so it's out of my control to some extent now. All I can do is concentrate on doing the best job I can; then we will see what happens afterwards. Every rally is a sprint event these days and we cannot afford to give away time. So we'll be aiming to set a good pace from the beginning and hopefully that will be enough to deliver us the result that we need."

Sandell's car is run by Raimund Baumschlager, who recently secured his 10th Austrian championship with a Skoda Fabia S2000, so his team knows the car inside out. This will enable them to adapt the set-up to the specific demands of the gravel stages of Wales.

Baumschlager added: "Patrik deserves his chance to win the Super 2000 title and naturally we are all right behind him. The situation is so closely balanced that it's hard to tell what is going to happen. We just have to concentrate on our own rally and ensure that we do not make any mistakes. He faces a tough task, but I have every faith in Patrik to show the best of himself."

The Rally Great Britain gets underway with an all-new spectator superspecial stage in Cardiff Bay on Thursday 11 November, just after the start at 1830. The rally takes in 20 stages and 359.44 competitive kilometres in total before the finish back in Cardiff on Sunday 14 November at 1453.

-source: red bull

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