WRC Rally Sweden: Ogier wins as Mikkelsen goes off on final stage

Mikkelsen went onto the final stage with a three-second buffer over Ogier, who had been mounting a comeback since losing almost 40s to the Norwegian after hitting a snow bank on Friday's final stage.

But a similar fate befell Mikkelsen part-way through the event-closing Varmullsasen power stage, ending his hopes of taking a first WRC victory as Ogier came through to snatch the win, as well as three bonus points for setting the best time on the finale.

Hyundai's Thierry Neuville held the lead at the start of the morning after taking two stage wins on Saturday afternoon, but was overhauled by Mikkelsen on SS19 and then by Ogier on SS20, unable to keep up with the pace of the VWs.

The Belgian nonetheless went into the final stage with a shot of victory, starting 4.6s adrift, but fell 6.4s short of a second WRC win, picking up two bonus points for the second quickest power stage time and moving back into second place at Mikkelsen's expense.

Mads Ostberg claimed the final bonus point, having been a factor in the lead battle before his works Citroen sustained a puncture on SS11, leaving him a distant fourth.

He subsequently dropped to 10th after losing five minutes stuck in a snow bank on Sunday's opening stage, promoting M-Sport Ford's Ott Tanak to an eventual fourth, 2m26s off the pace.

Hayden Paddon took a career-best fifth place finish in the second factory Hyundai, a further minute behind Tanak, with the second M-Sport car of Elfyn Evans sixth after he managed to beach his Ford Fiesta in a snow bank on Friday.

Citroen's Kris Meeke, another to lose time after hitting a snow bank on Friday, entered the power stage with a chance of taking away Evans's sixth place, but a spin left him 21.5s behind the Welshman in the final reckoning.

Rounding out the points-scorers were Martin Prokop, Yuriy Protasov - who became the latest driver to win a WRC stage on Friday - and Ostberg, with Kevin Abbring coming home 11th on his factory WRC debut deputising for the injured Dani Sordo.

Jari-Matti Latvala was in strong victory contention, duelling with team-mate Ogier on the early stages of the rally, but the Finn's hopes were dashed when he lost eight minutes stuck in a snow bank on the final stage of Friday. He ended the rally out of the points in 12th position.

Also enduring a miserable time was Robert Kubica, who dropped out of the points on Friday with a broken propshaft before being handed a five-minute penalty for his Ford Fiesta RS WRC exceeding the maximum permissible boost level, dropping him to 20th overall.

Jari Ketomaa took WRC2 honours after seizing the lead from Pontus Tidemand, the surprise overall pacesetter on the opening superspecial on Thursday evening.

The Finn finished 32.6s clear of Eyvind Brynildsen, while Tidemand suffered an off on Friday.

LEADING FINISHERS AFTER SS21:

LEADING POWER STAGE TIMES:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER TWO OF 13 ROUNDS: