Speaking ahead of the event though, he conceded that it is always very tricky and while his last two outings haven’t gone to plan - he was withdrawn last season after losing over 14 minutes on day 2 with an off and was excluded in 2006 - he has finished on the podium before too, winning in 2005 and taking third in 2004.
"It’s the first snow rally this year and I’m looking forward to it," said 'Hollywood'. "We need to drive very differently here, so it’s about who can adapt. There’s always a lot of fans there and it’s great to have their support.
"We’ve won here before but it’s so, so tricky you never know what can happen. We’ll go there and drive our own rally, push as hard as we can, and see what happens. We can’t do any more than that.
"I hope we can have another good finish. It’s about being fast but not making any mistakes."
Chris Atkinson meanwhile has said that he will approach the Swedish Rally in much the same way as he tackled the opening round in the championship.
Atkinson began the new season in style on the Monte, notching up a podium finish after a fantastic scrap with
Stobart Ford 'guest' driver
Francois Duval. In the end the Aussie came out top by just 1.1 seconds and while he knows it is going to be very tough to repeat that rostrum this weekend he is still hopeful he can finish high up and get another good points' haul.
Indeed last year he almost took P5, until an error in SS18 on the final day dropped him down to eighth.
"We made a mistake in '07. I was in fifth and with two stages to go I was in a big fight and made an error and dropped back," he reflected in an exclusive interview with
Crash.net Radio. "Definitely a top five then is a possibility going on last year and that is what we are aiming for again.
"If we can just get some more good points - that will be the main thing. Third in Monte Carlo was great, but we can’t expect that all the time. The aim will be the same as Monte Carlo - to go there targeting a top five and try to set top five times consistently and then see where we are after that."
