Rally Sweden 2023
18h
SS7 ranking:
General classification after SS7:
18h
The longest special stage on Friday at Rally Sweden (25 km) allowed Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford) to return to the fight against Craig Breen (Hyundai) in the lead. The Estonian took 4s from the Irishman in the Scandinavian night, on terrain where the tires began to lose studs due to the lack of snow and ice.
The Ford Puma is now 6''4 closer to the Hyundai i20. Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) becomes alone in third position and Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) is more than half a minute behind. As for Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport Ford), his outlay goes beyond the minute due to a non-functional system.
18h
Craig Breen knows one thing less well! The Irishman lost 4″1 to Ott Tänak and saw the Estonian catch up to him at 6″4 at the top of the general classification! “I had so much understeer, let's hope the tires still hold up in the next stage. »
17h
Pierre-Louis Loubet competed in the special without a hybrid system, and logically lost 17″.
17h
Esapekka Lappi takes the 2nd time, 9 tenths behind Tänak. “I thought the Hyundai was going to perform better than that on this second loop. »
17h
Ott Tänak attacks hard! He takes the scratch time with a 5″9 lead over Evans.
17h
Elfyn Evans takes the best time by 1″5. He increases his lead over Kalle Rovanperä to 7″5. “I didn't feel like I was going to be that fast though. »
17h
Thierry Neuville gets closer to 3″ behind Kalle Rovanperä after this SS. “I did what I could. The tires overheated because I didn't have enough aerodynamic downforce on the front of the car with my damaged bumper. »
Kalle Rovanperä explains that he “asked too much of (his) front tires”.
17h
We rewatch Takamoto Katsuta's accident earlier this afternoon. The Japanese did not finish the stage and hopes to start again tomorrow:
16h
Here we are in the middle of the Scandinavian night to follow the longest special of the day, Botsmark 2 (25,81 km).
