The second event of this year's World Championship season was the Swedish Rally , which, in addition to the host country, also took part in Norway . In the first stage, 126 sharp kilometers awaited the crews.
Thursday's shakedown was already mastered by the Frenchman Sébastien Ogier with the Volkswagen Polo R WRC . The Polish Robert Kubica arrived at the finish line just behind him with a Ford Fiesta RS WRC . But on the first sharp special in the evening in Karlstadt, Pontus Tidemand was the fastest with a weaker Ford Fiesta RRC. This is how he scored his first ever victory on a special stage in the World Championship, and a valuable one too, when he beat the WRC specials. Second position was taken by Mads Ostberg with Citroën DS3 WRC and third was Jari-Matti Latvala with another Pole WRC. However, the situation changed on Friday, as Ogier and Latvala moved into the lead. In third place they were joined by Andreas Mikkelsen in the third Volkswagen, followed by Ostberg and Thierry Neuville in the Hyundai i20 N WRC .
The afternoon section also brought the first special stage win of his career, this time it was Yuriy Protasov with a Fiesta RS WRC who beat Latvala and Kubica in the sixth special stage. Ogier was slowed by wiper problems and a broken window. Nothing changed in the first three places of the running order. Kubica, whose rear-wheel drive failed, and Kris Meeke , who flew off the track with his Citroën, got into trouble. The same fate later befell Elfyn Evans with Ford. However, the real Waterloo came in the ninth stage and the main actor was the Volkswagen team. Both Ogier and Latvala lost a lot of time in the drifts, the Finn even buried himself for an abysmal 8 minutes. The new leader was initially third Mikkelsen ahead of Neuville and Ostberg . Ogier fell behind them, followed by Ott Tänak with a Ford, Hayden Paddon with a Hyundai and Martin Prokop with another Ford. In WRC2 , Ketomaa led ahead of Gorban and Ahlin.
The second stage measured 134 kilometers. From the start, Ogier took the lead, working his way up to second place during three tests. Neuville remained third, but Ostberg , who was originally second, went off the track and suffered a puncture. But Neuville was not going to put up with Ogier's overtaking and instead attacked himself. This brought him to the top of the entire competition. Behind him were the Volkswagens in order of Mikkelsen and Ogier. Behind them was a relatively stable order of Ostberg, Tänak , Paddon , Prokop , Evans , Meeke and Protasov . Ketomaa still led WRC2 , but Brynildsen rose to second place and Ahlin remained third. It was only behind them that Gorban, who was holding behind him the defender of Al-Rajhi's victory, fell. In the WRC3 Category, the Norwegian Veiby remained completely alone.
The fight for victory became very dramatic thanks to the five-second time gap between the first and third rider. Ogier managed to pass Neuville and the fight for the winner narrowed down to only him and Mikkelsen . However, he could not withstand the pressure of his teammate and hit the snow barrier. After a year, Ogier became the overall winner again. Neuville was second and Mikkelsen third. Ostberg won one point from the final Power Stage for third place. Overall, Tänak was fourth, Paddon fifth, Evans sixth, Meeke seventh, Prokop eighth, Protasov ninth and Ostberg tenth.
Photo: Eursport, Biser3a, Automobilsport, Twitter, Bilsport, UNB, Citroën, Autorally
