Mads Ostberg leads a distorted shakedown

The relatively mild temperatures for the season in Sweden (barely below 0°) and the blatant lack of snow on the slopes of rally offered shakedown spectators a show that fell short of expectations. Most of the competitors only made one or two high-speed runs, or even none for Mikko Hirvonen. The Finn preferred to save his studded tires on his home Ford Fiesta RS M-Sport. Same idea with Elfyn Evans and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Among the other headliners, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mads Ostberg opted for two “complete” passages. The Norwegian from Citroën finally achieved the best time in 1'55″8 ahead of the Finn from Volkswagen and the second DS3 WRC by Kris Meeke; The Irishman also went off the road at the start of the shakedown, causing passages to be interrupted.

The world champion Sébastien Ogier ranks 10th in 2'03″01, a time achieved during his first run. It will be noted that Thierry Neuville place first Hyundai i20 in 5th place and Juho Hänninen, his teammate for this Swedish rally, took 7th place in a ranking distorted by road conditions. The first ES will be contested this evening around 20 p.m.

Shakedown Rally Sweden standings:

1. Mads Ostberg (Citroën DS3 WRC) 1:55:8
2. Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 1:56:2
3. Kris Meeke (Citroën DS3 WRC) 1?56?6
4. H.Solberg (Ford Fiesta WRC) 1?57?2
5. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC) 1?58?0
6. Craig Breen (Ford Fiesta WRC) 1?58?4
7. Juho Hänninen (Hyundai i20 WRC) 1?59?9
8. Michal Solowow (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2?01
8. Robert Kubica (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2?01?4
9. Yurii Protasov (Ford Fiesta R5) 2’02″7
10. Pontus Tidemand (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:02:8
11. Sébastien Ogier (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 2:03:1
...
13. Ott Tänak (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2?03?7
...
16. Khalid Al-Qassimi (Citroën DS3 WRC) 2?06
...
18. Martin Prokop (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:06:4
...
22. Elfyn Evans (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:13:8
...
30. Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2:23:9
31. Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 2:24:9