Tänak at the helm of Rally Sweden

Ott Tänak took control of Rally Sweden while being chased by Teemu Suninen and Jari-Matti Latvala. Sébastien Ogier follows Thierry Neuville while Sébastien Loeb is behind.

Published on 15/02/2019 à 11:04

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With two scratches signed at the end of the three stages covered in the first stage of the Rally from Sweden, Ott Tänak (Toyota) se place logiquement en tête de l’épreuve. L’Estonien possède une poignée de secondes d’avance sur les Finlandais Teemu Suninen (M-Sport) et Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) qui possèdent tous des positions intéressantes sur la route.

Latvala took third place in SS4 against Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Le vice-champion pointe à 4 dixièmes du tiercé de tête et à 6 secondes de la tête de la course. Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) completes the Top 5 just over 8 seconds behind his opponent, but the six-time champion WRC dreads the second passage as he opens the road.

“There was already dirt and the conditions are likely to be more difficult for us this afternoon”, warned the Frenchman who is ahead of his teammate Esapekka Lappi by 4 tenths.

Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) is in 7th place, less than 3 seconds behind the Citroëns, with a fairly comfortable lead over Kris Meeke (Toyota), who is lacking pace in his Toyota Yaris WRC.

It’s a difficult start to the rally for Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) which is only in 9th position. The nine-time WRC champion, who is 43 seconds behind the race lead, stressed that he was discovering several courses this morning. The Alsatian is less than 2 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans (M-Sport). Pontus Tidemand (M-Sport) is the first, more than a minute behind the leader, the national driver of the event having suffered mechanical problems from SS3 onwards.

Marcus Grönholm (Toyota) had a difficult recovery. The GRX driver made several errors until he suffered a road accident on the last course while occupying 25th position. The double WRC champion will not go any further in this stage.

Ole Christian Veiby (Volkswagen) leads WRC 2, occupying 12th place in the general classification, ahead of Mads Ostberg (Citroën), leader of WRC 2 Pro following the exit of Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda) who lost more than 2 minutes. Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen) follows in second place in WRC 2.