Sweden: Neuville in charge, Ogier out of the top ten

The particularly snowy conditions in Sweden further complicate the task of the first drivers on the road. The ranking at midday in the first stage represents the situation well.

En manque de réussite au Monte-Carlo, les pilotes Hyundai profitent d’une route nettoyée par leurs concurrents. Thierry Neuville did not wait to set the pace and take the lead of the event with a handful of seconds ahead of his teammate Andreas Mikkelsen.

Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) est le plus proche des premières i20 WRC by being less than two seconds behind the Norwegian. The Finn leads Mads Ostberg by two seconds, who makes a brilliant debut in the Citroën C3 WRC.

Craig Breen (Citroën) completes the top five, but the Irishman makes a first break in the peloton 15 seconds behind the leader of the race. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) follows two seconds behind with a few tenths ahead of his teammate Ott Tänak, Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) et Teemu Suninen (M-Sport).

Teemu Suninen is by far the best placed at M-Sport, with his teammates suffering greatly from their position on the road. Sébastien Ogier is only 11th, nine seconds behind Kris Meeke (Citroën), while Elfyn Evans is isolated in 12th place after suffering a puncture in SS4 when hitting a divot in the road which surprised several crews.

Takamoto Katsuta (Ford) leads WRC 2 with one second ahead of Ole Veiby (Skoda). Pontus Tidemand (Skoda) completes the podium in the category ahead of Jari Huttunen (yundai) and Hiroki Arai (Ford). The top five of WRC 2 are grouped together in around ten seconds. Among the R5s, the reigning World RX champion Johan Kristoffersson (Skoda) is in ninth place.

The first step of Rally of Sweden will resume from 13:41 p.m.