Rally Sweden - Day 2: Ogier close to his third Sweddish victory
Sebastien Ogier (Volkswagen Motorsport) remained in the lead after Day 2 of Rally Sweden, the second round of World Rally Championship. With just one more stage to go on Sunday, Ogier is almost a certain winner of the only winter rally in the calendar. If he wins, it will be his third Swedish victory, after he triumphed in 2013 and 2015.
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Hyundai’s New Zealander Hayden Paddon is 17.1s behind Ogier and 25.2s ahead of the Norwegian Mads Ostberg (M-Sport Ford), so his podium finish is also secured. Ostberg has 25.1s advantage ahead of the fourth-placed Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen), so we can say that the third bottle of champagne already has the name on it.
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Sebastien Ogier remained in the comfortable lead after Day 2 of Rally Sweden
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Fresh snow slowed down Ogier
Sebastien Ogier started Day 2 with the fastest time on Stage 10 Fredriksberg, increasing his lead over the second-placed Hayden Paddon to 32 seconds. But, on the following stage, Ogier suffered some time loss from cleaning the road from the fresh snow and lost 37.8s compared to the stage winner Latvala. Paddon was 23 seconds faster than Ogier and the gap after the morning loop was just 8.8 seconds.
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Behind Ogier and Paddon were two Norwegians Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen who fought for the third place. After two morning stages, Ostberg had 10s advantage. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) started the day with intention to fight for podium, but front left puncture on Stage 10 cost him more than a minute and he fell to sixth place.
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Jari-Matti Latvala was fastest on three Saturday’s stages
One more crash for the new M-Sport driver Camilli
Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen), who restarted after Friday’s retirement, had a puncture of the same tire on the same stage and also lost over a minute. On Stage 11 he was the fastest, ahead of another restarter Kris Meeke in Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen DS3 WRC.
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The main victim of the slippery roads with lots of fresh snow was Eric Camilli, who rolled his Ford Fiesta on Stage 10. It was Camilli’s second retirement in his second event as a M-Sport driver, after he went off the road at Rallye Monte-Carlo.
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Erir Camilli rolled his Ford Fiesta on Stage 10
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Brynildsen’s record jump at Colin’s Crest
Latvala won his first afternoon’s stage, again with Kris Meeke closely behind him. Stage 14 was decisive in a fight for third place, because Mikkelsen slid off and had to turn around, so he lost about 20 seconds compared to rival Mads Ostberg.
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Ogier was the fastest one once more at the penultimate stage of the day, the Vargassen stage with the famous jump at Colin’s Crest. The new record jump of 45 metres was performed by the Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen with Ford Fiesta R5. The last stage of the day was the Super Special Stage at Karlstad trotting track, with one more stage win for Latvala.
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Sunday’s schedule is shortened from four to just one stage. It will be 15.8km-long Power Stage Varmullsasen.
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The longest jump ever at Colin’s Crest: 45m of Eyvind Brynildsen with Ford Fiesta R5
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Video: Eyvind Brynildsen flied to the record at Colin’s Crest
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Check the complete results at SnapLap result pages.
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Photos: Volkswagen Motorsport, ewrc-results.com, m-sport.co.uk
