Latvala first leader of Rally Sweden

Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) is the first leader of the Rally dev Sweden. The Finn achieved the scratch by completing the 1,9km of the opening super special in Karlstad in 1'34''1 and beating his opponent by 9 tenths. Sébastien Ogier (Ford) with whom he was in a duel.

In the other duels, Mads Ostberg (Ford) beat Kris Meeke (Citroën) by 8 tenths. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) beaten down Ott Tänak (Ford) ahead of the Estonian by 2 tenths. Elfyn Evans (Ford) beat Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) by 1”1. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) won against Craig Breen (Citroën) with almost 3 seconds ahead. Juho Hänninen (Toyota) won the first duel by beating the DS 3 WRC by Stéphane Lefebvre for 1”5.

In the standings, Jari-Matti Latvala is 6 tenths ahead of Thierry Neuville, while Dani Sordo follows at 7 tenths. Ott Tänak and Sébastien Ogier complete the top five, less than a second behind the leader. Mads Ostberg follows in 6th place ahead of Kris Meeke, first driver 2 seconds from the head of the race. The Citroën driver precedes Juho Hänninen and Elfyn Evans, while his teammates Stéphane Lefebvre and Craig Breen complete the top 15, the Frenchman having left his C3 WRC to the Irishman after Monte-Carlo.

Ole Christian Veiby (Skoda) was the fastest in WRC 2. The Norwegian, who occupies 10th place in the general classification, is one second ahead of Pontus Tidemand (Skoda) and Eyvind Brinildsen (Ford). Éric Camilli (Ford) is in 8th place in the category. Pierre-Louis Loubet (DS 3) occupies provisional 11th place.

The first stage of Rally Sweden will begin tomorrow at 7:59 a.m. with the 18,47km Röjden.