Mikkelsen emerges as leader in Sweden

Until the start of SS9, the second passage in the Torsby sector, the duel between Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala was in full swing. But the ninth timed sector largely upset the hierarchy of the second round of the 2015 World Rally Championship, the two strong men at the start of rally both making a mistake, but with very different consequences.

Ogier lost more than 38″ after hitting a wall of snow in a slow corner, following braking too late. However, the situation is much more complicated for Latvala who got stuck in a ditch and lost more than eight minutes and thirty seconds, and his chances of victory, before the efforts of the spectators who came as reinforcements allowed the former Ford driver to leave. This is finally the third Volkswagen Polo R WRC byAndreas Mikkelsen who emerges at the top of the event. The Norwegian, always well placed in the wake of his teammates throughout the day, leads this evening with 19″1 d’avance sur la Hyundai i20 from Belgium Thierry Neuville, author of the scratch in SS9. Mads Ostberg completes the top three at the wheel of his Citroën DS3 three tenths behind Neuville after the Karlstad super-special. Sébastien Ogier retains 4th place, 24″7 behind the leader, and remains in the race for victory, after having experienced a day disrupted by problems with the windshield wipers, and a windshield damaged by an engine cover poorly secured on the link before SS7.

Behind the world champion, the Estonian Ott Tänak places the first Ford Fiesta RS in M-Sport en 5e position à plus de 1’06 juste devant la Hyundai i20 de Hayden Paddon, qui a ramené sa monture sans le pare-choc avant à l’issue de la neuvième spéciale. Martin Prokop (Ford) emmène les voitures sœurs de Protasov, auteur du scratch dans l’ES6, Henning Solberg et Elfyn Evans, qui complète le top 10. D’autres pilotes ont perdu gros aujourd’hui en Suède, à commencer par Kris Meeke, bloqué dans un mur de neige dans l’ES7, qui a concédé près de 2’50 ». Le Nord-Irlandais se classe 12e à plus de 3’30. Robert Kubica a rencontré de son côté des problèmes de différentiel avec une Ford Fiesta n’évoluant qu’avec la traction, et pointe à 7’50″7.

In WRC-2, the Finn Jari Ketomaa (Ford Fiesta R5) has 46″1 on the Mini JCW of Valeriy Gorban and 46″5 on the Ford Fiesta R5 of Fredrik Åhlin. Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre is in 18th place overall. The first SS of the day on Saturday will begin at 7:48 a.m., and will be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr. Rally Sweden videos can be viewed here.