The Power Stage will be decisive in Sweden

The long-awaited three-way match this morning between Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), leader at the end of the third day, and the two Volkswagen Polos from Andreas Mikkelsen and Sébastien Ogier is well and truly launched. It was the Frenchman who did the best after the first two SS of the day, taking the scratch in SS19 and taking second place in SS20 behind Jari-Matti Latvala. If Andeas Mikkelsen took control of the race, Ogier made up a large part of his deficit, peaking at 9 this morning, to be only three seconds behind his teammate.

For Thierry Neuville, the morning had started rather badly since the Hyundai driver, victim of intercom problems, hit a wall of snow in SS19 and lost almost four seconds to Mikkelsen, losing the lead at the same time. rally. The Belgian, however, remains clearly in the running for victory by positioning himself 4″6 behind the leader before the Power Stage, a repeat of SS20.

Behind the master trio, Mads Ostberg is the big loser of the morning. The Citroën driver lost more than 5′ in a wall of snow in SS19 and fell back to 10th position overall. The Norwegian's setbacks benefited Ott Tänak (Ford) and Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) who both gained a place. The battle for sixth place between Elfyn Evans (Ford) and Kris Meeke (Citroën) will be intense since only 1″4 separate the two Britons who also took advantage of the poor start to the stage by Martin Prokop (Ford) who lost two places this morning.

En WRC-2, the Finnish Jari Ketomaa controls the category at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta R5 with a 31″5 lead over Eyvind Brynildsen (Ford) and more than 3′ over the Ukrainian Valeriy Gorban (Mini) who returned to 3rd position following the problems for Fredrik Ahlin (Ford) who lost more than 2'30 in SS20.

The Power Stage will begin at 12:08 p.m. and can be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.