Suninen takes the lead in Sweden, Ogier and Latvala at fault

Teemu Suninen (M-Sport) took advantage of his favorable position on the road to seize the lead of the Rally from Sweden. The Finn, who leads an event for the first time WRC, notably took the scratch in the Svullrya special and maintained a high pace. His only poor performance came in the first pass of Torsby (which will serve as the Power Stage on Sunday) where he saw Ott Tänak (Toyota) go back to just 2 seconds.

While he was ranked 7th, Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) was trapped by hitting a wall of snow. The six-time WRC champion was unable to leave after finding himself stuck in a sector without spectators.

SS6: @SebOgier off! – His Citroen is stopped at 16.1km. He bounced off a snow back with the rear and is nosed off the road on the left-hand side. Will he be able to continue? #WRClive pic.twitter.com/OeIuEJQ191

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 15th February 2019

The Frenchman was not the only unlucky one. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) was fighting for the lead until he found himself stuck in a wall of snow on the last special stage of the day for more than 20 minutes.

SS8: ¡Latvala fuera! This is called when it is second in general. Live in https://t.co/twccZ0hRvh #WRC #WRCliveES pic.twitter.com/wMSuF5A6sx

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 15th February 2019

Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) took advantage of the Finn's error to climb onto the provisional podium with a good ten seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans (M-Sport).

By being the fastest WRC in SS8, Esapekka Lappi (Citroën) gained 4 places and found himself in 5th position with almost 7 seconds ahead of Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai). The peloton remains tight since Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) follows less than 4 seconds behind with a half-second lead over Kris Meeke (Toyota). Pontus Tidemand (M-Sport) is in 9th place.

The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5s are definitely showing themselves well since Ole Christian Veiby occupies the lead of WRC 2 with 24 seconds over the double reigning World RX champion Johan Kristoffersson. Mads Ostberg (Citroën) is leading the WRC 2 Pro, behind Jari Huttunen (Skoda) in the general classification, which places him only in 4th place in the two WRC 2 categories. The Finn distinguished himself by signing the scratch on the last route.

The second stage of the Swedish Rally will begin this Saturday from 7:44 a.m. with another 7 special stages on the program for a total of 137 timed km. The event will be followed live with our live text.