Weather concerns remain

Amid concerns that the road surfaces may not be suitable for the studded tyres that teams have nominated for the event, the drivers were locked in intense discussions with their engineers during this morning's shakedown run to discuss how best to cope with the conditions.

Although rally organisers have been watering the stages to try and get a layer of ice over the top of the gravel surfaces, especially with overnight temperatures plunging to minus 10-degrees centigrade, the fear is that the surfaces will get ripped up too much after the first run to make the stage re-runs pass without trouble.

Stage commander Johan Magnusson is convinced, however, that there will be no trouble for the drivers or teams - with more snow predicted to fall on Thursday night.

"I was so convinced that I ordered the shakedown stage to be cleaned from snow yesterday evening," he declared, "when all of Varmland finally was covered by a beautiful white layer of snow."

Despite the weather fears, there will be no change to the route of the rally apart from the start of the first stage being moved further down the route to an area with more snow.