"The only things I know about the stages are what I have been told. But I'm not alone in that. There are virtually no drivers with previous experience of these roads,” said the 38-year-old. “Even
Petter Solberg admits that he does not know much about them - and he is Norwegian!
"We all have two passes during the recce to learn them as well as we can. It will be difficult for both myself and Timo [Rautiainen - my co-driver] but we are in the same position as the other drivers so there is no disadvantage to us,” he continued.
“It means we have to be extremely precise during the recce. It will be important to be 100 per cent accurate when we make the notes during the first pass so that we can check them during the second time through. But I enjoy winter rallies so I'm looking forward to Norway.”
Gronholm’s team-mate,
Mikko Hirvonen, who has never previously set foot in Norway before, also acknowledges that the recce will be crucial. Indeed Mikko envisages that the Rally Norway will be especially tough for his co-pilot, Jarmo Lehtinen.
"We must learn the roads quickly and if we do a good, thorough recce then we will be fine. It will probably be harder for Jarmo than for me because he has to write a complete set of pace notes from a blank sheet of paper and then spend a lot of time during the evenings finalising them for the rally,” confirmed the Ford man.
OMV Kronos Citroen WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #5 and Daniel Carlsson, car #6].
OMV Kronos Citroen’s Daniel Carlsson has pledged that he will be on ‘full attack’ mode on the Rally Norway - his second event with the Xsara WRC.
![Scene at the start of Rally Norway 2006 [Pic credit: Rally Norway]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/263848.jpg)
