Hankook Braces for the Ultimate Snow and Ice Challenge as WRC Arrives in Rally Sweden

• Rally Sweden runs from February 12–15, with all competitive stages taking place on snow- and ice-covered roads
• Hankook’s Winter i*Pike SR10W delivers stable, high-level performance in extreme sub-zero conditions
• As Round 2 of the season, Rally Sweden sets the tone for the early championship battle, intensifying the fight for position in one of the WRC’s most demanding winter events

UMEÅ, Sweden, Feb. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereafter Hankook), a leading global tire company of the Hankook & Company Group (Chairman Hyunbum Cho) and the exclusive tire supplier to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), enters the season’s first true winter crucible as Round 2 of the 2026 WRC — Rally Sweden — returns to the snowbound forests of Umeå, Sweden, from February 12 to 15.

A fixture on the WRC calendar since 1950, Rally Sweden remains the championship’s only round run entirely on snow and ice. Crews will contest 18 special stages spanning roughly 300 kilometers of frozen roads, where Rally1 cars routinely approach 200 km/h with engines revving close to 8,500 rpm. In these conditions, success hinges on razor-sharp car control, exceptional tire grip and handling, and consistently reliable braking performance across every corner.

For Rally Sweden, Hankook will equip competitors with the Winter i*Pike SR10W, a purpose-built competition tire featuring specially designed ice-rally stud pins. Developed specifically for the unique demands of snow and ice, the tire delivers powerful traction and dependable braking on frozen and snow-covered surfaces, while its asymmetric tread pattern provides stable grip and precise handling at high speeds.

Having already delivered strong and consistent performance at Rally Sweden in 2025 — earning praise from drivers and event officials alike — the Winter i*Pike SR10W returns with high expectations for this year’s event. Hankook is confident that the tire will once again showcase its world-class winter performance across Sweden’s demanding frozen stages.

In the championship standings, Oliver Solberg of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team arrives in Sweden as the championship leader after a historic victory at the 2026 season-opening Rallye Monte-Carlo, where he became the youngest winner of the event in the 21st century. Competing on home soil, the young Swede carries both momentum and expectation into Rally Sweden, with fans watching closely to see whether he can strengthen his title bid and reshape the early-season championship battle.

Since the 2025 season, Hankook has been the exclusive tire supplier across all WRC classes, reaffirming its status as a top-tier global tire manufacturer. Leveraging performance data and technical insights gathered from supplying racing tires and supporting teams in more than 70 motorsport series worldwide, Hankook systematically feeds real-world competition learnings back into the development of its ultra-high-performance products, continuously strengthening its technology leadership both on the track and beyond.

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