Rally Sweden: Mikkelsen leads as Ogier and Latvala go off

Ogier had clung on to the lead through the loop's initial three stages despite his windscreen wipers failing before the first of them.

A badly cracked windscreen was then added to his troubles when he failed to properly secure the VW's bonnet after trying in vain to fix the wipers on a road section.

Latvala reduced Ogier's advantage from 9.1 seconds to just one second through SS6 and SS7, but then lost another 1.9s on SS8.

Ogier then appeared to hand Latvala the lead when he slid into a snow bank and dropped half a minute early on the Torsby stage that concluded the loop.

But Latvala himself went off close to the finish, getting stuck in a ditch and losing over eight minutes while spectators helped him get back on the road.

Mikkelsen had closed his gap to the lead from 19s to 9s with a burst of pace that included winning SS8, and then found himself leading after his team-mates' mistakes.

Ogier remains firmly in contention in fourth place, 26s behind the new leader, while Thierry Neuville and Mads Ostberg are second and third, 19.7s and 20.6s behind respectively.

Ostberg had been battling Mikkelsen for third until losing time when distracted by an allegedly drunk spectator behaving dangerously on SS8.

Hyundai driver Neuville's pace had been improving all afternoon, and closed right in on Ostberg before edging into what became second at the end of Torsby.

Ogier and Latvala weren't the only drivers in trouble during the afternoon.

Robert Kubica tumbled down the order when a broken propshaft left him running in two-wheel-drive mode, and both Elfyn Evans and Kris Meeke slid off the road and got stuck in snow banks, dropping two and three minutes respectively.

The mayhem further up the field has allowed Evans to get back to 10th already, with Meeke not far behind.

Hayden Paddon's Hyundai has moved up to sixth, ahead of Martin Prokop, Yuriy Protasov and Henning Solberg.

Protasov, a recent graduate from WRC2 to an M-Sport Ford World Rally Car, took a shock first stage win on the second running of the short Kirkenaer stage at the start of the afternoon.

Friday's action concludes with a repeat of the Karlstad superspecial later in the evening.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS9: