WRC – Ogier leads Volkswagen trio at Rally Sweden

The first passage of the special stages of the first stage of the Rally from Sweden only offered 31km timed. The gaps are therefore tight but Volkswagen still makes an impression by occupying the first three places after the first four races contested. With two scratches to his credit, Sébastien Ogier took control of the event, taking advantage of an opening position which proved advantageous. But his teammate Andreas Mikkelsen had something to answer for since his best time in the last special allowed him to come back to within two seconds of the Frenchman. Jari-Matti Latvala completes the leading trio just six seconds behind the Frenchman.

Ott Tänak makes a superb start to the rally as he manages to keep up with the pace of the Polo R WRC only two seconds behind the Finn. Mikko Hirvonen completes the top five, 15 seconds from the head of the race, closely followed by Mads Ostberg. The pilots Hyundai Thierry Neuville and Juho Hänninen are neck and neck since the Belgian is only half a second ahead of the Finn, but the two residents of the Korean team are already almost half a minute from the lead of the race. Pontus Tidemand and Henning Solberg complete the top ten. The Norwegian distinguished himself by setting the second fastest time on SS4 (Finnskogen). Kris Meeke is on the outskirts of the top ten, followed by around ten seconds by Robert Kubica.

The crews do not have mid-stage assistance for this day. Sébastien Ogier will resume the Kirkener route which will resume at 14:54 p.m.