Saturday
SS10: Mikkelsen makes his move
Andreas Mikkelsen rocketed up the leaderboard from sixth to third during a snowy opening to Saturday’s second leg of Rally Sweden.
About 5cm of snow fell overnight in the Hagfors area where today’s action is based, transforming the special stages compared to the mud encountered during the recce.
Mikkelsen repaired much of the damage caused by yesterday’s spin that relegated him from second with second fastest time to overhaul Mads Ostberg, Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo.
However, Mikkelsen had to give best to Volkswagen Polo R team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who made light of the perceived disadvantage of ploughing the fresh snow as road opener, to go fastest and extend his lead over Hayden Paddon to 32.4sec.
“Ogier has been in every ditch and there are stones everywhere. He’s setting the boundaries!” said Mikkelsen.
Ogier was content with his performance. “It wasn’t the best stage, but not too bad. It will cost me time compared to the guys behind but how much I don’t know. It would have been difficult for me to do better,” he said.
Hayden Paddon retained second in his Hyundai i20, the Kiwi believing there was little advantage from his lower start position. “In some places we have good grip, in others there’s more ice and the surface is chewing up. I don’t think there’s a gain or a loss in my position, but my driving was messy. I can improve a lot,” he said.
Ostberg lost a few seconds after sliding his Ford Fiesta RS into a ditch, but Sordo fell back from the big fight for second after losing a minute with a front left puncture. In more serious trouble was Eric Camilli who rolled heavily and retired.
Jari-Matti Latvala’s disastrous weekend continued with a front left puncture that cost a minute, while Lorenzo Bertelli retired his Ford Fiesta RS last night.
click:
wrc.com/sweden-ss10
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No SS11
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SS12: Paddon tears into Ogier lead
Hayden Paddon slashed Sebastien Ogier’s lead to just 8.8sec after a superb drive through the Vargasen winter wonderland that left the triple world champion looking anxiously over his shoulder.
With up to 10cm of snow in places, Paddon took full advantage of his lower start position to rocket over the forest tracks 23.6sec quicker than the road-opening Frenchman and create a genuine battle for victory in this second round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
While Ogier swept the fresh snow off the road in his Volkswagen Polo R, Paddon enjoyed a cleaner and faster line further back but the Hyundai i20 pilot was playing down his victory chances at the finish.
“I think this stage helped us,” he said. “We didn’t have an advantage in the first stage but it cleaned for us here. Ogier isn’t the target, but we want to build a buffer to those behind us.”
Ogier was 11th fastest. “It’s not the same story as earlier. I’m very happy with my stage but this one was different. Obviously we didn’t expect to lose that much time,” he said.
Fourth for Mads Ostberg propelled him back into third place in his Ford Fiesta RS, relegating fellow Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen to fourth and he is now 10.0sec to the good. Ott Tanak and Dani Sordo complete the top six on the leaderboard.
The stage continued to get cleaner and faster and yesterday’s retirees, Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke, took advantage. Latvala topped the times by 9.5sec from Meeke, with Paddon third.
click:
wrc.com/sweden-ss12
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No SS13
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Rally Sweden itinerary change
Sunday's opening Lesjofors stage has been cancelled due to adverse road conditions, Rally Sweden organisers announced this evening.
As a result, only the Live TV Varmullsasen Power Stage will be run on Sunday. The 15.87km stage, the final test of the rally, is scheduled to start at 1208hrs.
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SS14: Mikkelsen slip
Andreas Mikkelsen’s podium hopes at Rally Sweden suffered a major blow after a pace note mistake sent him careering off the road in the Rammen speed test.
The Norwegian hoped to take advantage of better road conditions to close in on the third place he ceded to Mads Ostberg in the previous Vargasen test. However, an over-ambitious note near the finish cost the Volkswagen Polo R driver dear.
“The pace note was too positive, it wasn’t 100 per cent accurate,” he admitted. “We went off and had to find a place to turn around. We lost a lot of time. The next stage will be really hard at the front of the running order and if I was to have any chance of fighting for third then I had to take my chance in this one.”
Mikkelsen dropped almost 20sec to his fellow countryman and the gap between them widened to 29.7sec.
The relatively snow-free conditions suited road opener Sebastien Ogier, who gave it his all to gain 1.4sec in his Polo R on second-placed Hayden Paddon.
“I was completely flat out. I took so many risks and couldn’t have gone any faster. We’ll lose time in the next one when Vargasen is repeated,” said Ogier.
Paddon admitted there was less snow than expected. “We had a nice pace, trying to keep it smooth and looking after the tyres as well,” said the New Zealand Hyundai i20 pilot.
Henning Solberg dropped a handful of seconds by stalling his Ford Fiesta RS at the start and the gap to Dani Sordo widened to 6.1sec in their fight for sixth.
Jari-Matti Latvala won the stage from Kris Meeke at an average of 123.55kph, the fastest of the rally.
click:
wrc.com/sweden-ss14
WRC2 standings after SS14 (Top 3):
1. Elfyn Evans - GBR Ford Fiesta R5 - 1h 06:23.1s WRC2
2. Pontus Tidemand - SWE Skoda Fabia R5 +28.3s WRC2
3. Teemu Suninen - FIN Skoda Fabia R5 +29.2s WRC 2
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No SS15
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SS16: Ogier widens lead over Paddon
Sebastien Ogier extended his Rally Sweden lead over Hayden Paddon to 15.9sec after winning the second pass through the Vargasen stage on Saturday afternoon.
Conditions were much improved compared with this morning’s deep snow and the Frenchman speared his Volkswagen Polo R through the test 5.7sec faster than Paddon’s Hyundai i20, despite a massive slide 1km after the start.
Ogier has created some breathing space for himself with just tonight’s super special stage around Karlstad trotting track and tomorrow’s live TV Power Stage remaining.
Paddon appeared to have settled for second, the Kiwi explaining: “It’s about maintaining my position now. We went into this stage 10sec behind Ogier and that’s like a minute to anyone else. We need to be smart. We struggled a bit in there, I think we used our studs in the stage before.”
Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen completed a 1-2-3 in the stage for Volkswagen, while Dani Sordo eased the pressure on himself in sixth by widening his advantage over Henning Solberg to 20.9sec. Solberg is now only 1.5sec ahead of Craig Breen.
Kris Meeke finished with the right rear tyre of Citroen’s DS 3 pushed off the rim, the Briton bouncing in and out of a ditch near the finish, and Yazeed Al Rajhi retired his Ford Fiesta RS after going off the road.
click:
wrc.com/sweden-ss16
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SS17
Sebastien Ogier has increased his overall lead at Rally Sweden with just the Power stage remaining as his Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala claims SS17 win.
With Paddon aiming to chip away at Ogier's lead of 15.9 seconds over the short 1.9km SS17 the Hyundai Motorsport driver conceded 1.2 seconds to the three-time reigning WRC champion over Karlstad 2 to fall 17.1 seconds adrift overall.
Due to the warmer temperatures melting large amounts of snow and ice across Scandinavia in the build-up to Rally Sweden, event organisers have slashed the stage numbers which leaves just the Power stage, Varmullsasen 2. left to run on the final day.
It means Paddon has 15.87km to chase Ogier down and barring a mechanical failure or mistake, the Volkswagen Motorsport driver will secure his second consecutive win in Sweden.
After retiring on the opening day Jari-Matti Latvala returned to action under WRC Rally 2 regulations and grabbed the stage victory by an impressive margin of 2.7s from Ott Tanak, considering the top ten were split by four seconds.
As a result of the compact results from the only stage in the evening the overall classification remained unchanged with M-Sport's Mads Ostberg occupying the final podium place ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen and Ott Tanak.
Dani Sordo has held on to sixth place ahead of WRC legend Henning Solberg with Citroen WRC debutant Craig Breen in eighth.
click:
crash.net/wrc/ss17
2016 Rally Sweden standings after leg 2 (Top 15):
1. Sebastien Ogier FRA Volkswagen Motorsport Polo R WRC 1h 52:04.7s M
2. Hayden Paddon NZL Hyundai Motorsport N i20 WRC +17.1s M
3. Mads Ostberg NOR M-Sport WRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC +42.3s M
4. Andreas Mikkelsen NOR Volkswagen Motorsport II Polo R WRC +1m 07.4s M
5. Ott Tanak EST DMACK WRT Ford Fiesta RS WRC +1m 31.6s M
6. Dani Sordo ESP Hyundai Motorsport i20 WRC +1m 56.3s M
7. Henning Solberg NOR Adapta Ford Fiesta RS WRC +2m 17.2s M
8. Craig Breen IRL Abu Dhabi Total WRT Citroen DS3 WRC +2m 20.8s M
9. Elfyn Evans GBR Ford Fiesta R5 +4m 44.7s WRC2
10. Pontus Tidemand SWE Skoda Fabia R5 +5m 02.6s WRC2
11. Teemu Suninen FIN Skoda Fabia R5 +5m 08.4s
12. Anders Grondal NOR Ford Fiesta R5 +6m 35.3s WRC2
13. Esapekka Lappi FIN Skoda Fabia R5 +6m 44.0s WRC2
14. Thierry Neuville BEL Hyundai Motorsport i20 WRC +7m 01.7s M
15. Eyvind Brynildsen NOR Ford Fiesta R5 +7m 13.5s WRC2
Click:
crash.net/sweden-day-2-leaderboard-after-ss17
Evans fends off resurgent Tidemand in Sweden WRC 2
Elfyn Evans retained the initiative in WRC 2 at Rally Sweden on Saturday despite a strong recovery from Pontus Tidemand that warmed the hearts of the home fans.
The Welshman overcame an afternoon steering problem to end the penultimate leg of this second round of the FIA World Rally Championship with a 17.9sec lead.
Evans won the opening special stage in the snowy forests near Hagfors in his Ford Fiesta R5. But Tidemand, who lost time yesterday with a broken driveshaft, claimed two wins and two second places in his Skoda Fabia R5 to reduce the deficit from 42.5sec.
“Pontus has driven really well today, but we’ve had a few little issues so if everything goes to plan we should have a big enough margin going into tomorrow’s final stage,” said Evans.
“We had a problem with the steering. I wasn’t sure what it was at the time but there was a strange feeling in the car and we lost some seconds. We managed to find the problem and make a temporary fix on the road section, but I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent comfortable with the way the car was driving after that.”
Anders Grondal overcame illness to hold third in a Fiesta R5, but Finland’s Esapekka Lappi was closing fast in a Fabia R5 after winning two stages. The gap between the pair was 8.7sec.
Eyvind Brynildsen’s Fiesta R5 was fifth with Emil Bergqvist completing the top six in a DS 3 R5, the duo split by 9.7sec.
Fredrik Åhlin was the most disappointed driver. The Norwegian ceded a minute with a puncture in the opening stage but recovered to third, only for his day to end prematurely when he ripped a wheel from his Fiesta R5 in the penultimate test.
Other retirements included Hubert Ptaszek with damaged suspension and Max Rendina with mechanical problems.
click:
wrc.com/WRC2/news/sweden-day2
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