Rally Sweden 2014
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Plenty of crowd noise for Tidemand as he takes to the stage next. He's fallen away from Meeke and is just ahead of stepfather Solberg now.
The Swedes are excited about their Junior WRC champion, he makes it onto the newspaper front pages in this part of the world.
Meeke finishes the stages with "no heroics" and adds in an only slightly ironic way that he's looking forward to a "long road section at the end of a long day" to get to Karlstad for this evening's superspecial later.
Kubica is three seconds slower than his team-mates, and is again using his stage-end interview as a chance to thank spectators for digging him out of snow banks.
Stopwatch
Solberg is the quickest of the early runners on Hagfors again, but only by a couple of tenths over Evans.
Lights out
Meanwhile Prokop, Al-Qassimi and Solowow are already through the Hagfors Sprint stage. to complete the afternoon loop.
Ogier is still kicking himself for his mistake this morning, laughing that he managed the toughest day yesterday when running first on the road in changing conditions, then binned it this morning on a stage he was feeling comfortable on.
He declares his target is to get back to sixth place, which is about 1m15s up the road.
He declares his target is to get back to sixth place, which is about 1m15s up the road.
Stopwatch
And while his team-mates fight over the lead, Ogier blows them away by 11s to take another stage win as his comeback charge continues.
Tough position for Mikkelsen - he's never been anywhere near as close to a WRC win, in fact he's never had a podium finish in this series.
Quote
Sounds like Mikkelsen has been thinking that crashing out of second would be a bad idea:
"We're trying to keep the pressure on but not take too many risks. I need to finish this event. We're not taking those very last risks where you hit every stone."
"We're trying to keep the pressure on but not take too many risks. I need to finish this event. We're not taking those very last risks where you hit every stone."
Latvala comes to the finish with some bodywork damage to his VW but shrugs it off.
"Sometimes when you are fighting, you have little moments," he shrugs.
Latvala matches Ostberg's time, but Mikkelsen is 2s slower, so Latvala's lead will grow to 9s.
"Sometimes when you are fighting, you have little moments," he shrugs.
Latvala matches Ostberg's time, but Mikkelsen is 2s slower, so Latvala's lead will grow to 9s.
Breaking news
Bit of news from Hyundai: after getting Neuville's car back to service it has confirmed that the Belgian will be able to restart tomorrow.
Crash
Kubica has got back on the road and made it to the end of that stage, but his second excursion in three stages has cost him another 11 minutes. He'll now be outside the top 30.
Ostberg is, again, unhappy at coming across a Kubica incident.
"I just had a really close call with a Formula 1 driver in the stage. Kubica was off the road and there were people on the stage.
"There was nobody to slow me down. That was so close, not just for the car but for the people. That was crazy."
"I just had a really close call with a Formula 1 driver in the stage. Kubica was off the road and there were people on the stage.
"There was nobody to slow me down. That was so close, not just for the car but for the people. That was crazy."
Now for the battle for third place, and it's good news for Ostberg again as he outpaces Hirvonen and extends his advantage to 16s.
Fastest on the stage so far is Henning Solberg, four tenths ahead of Meeke and two seconds ahead of Tidemand.
Crash
For the second time in a few hours, Meeke tells us about a Kubica shunt:
"I think he's just lost it under braking, it was like on the first loop this morning. There are loads of spectators there helping him."
"I think he's just lost it under braking, it was like on the first loop this morning. There are loads of spectators there helping him."
Breaking news
More problems for Kubica - the tracking system shows him stopped again. Meeke has gone past him.
Those mistakes won't have cost Breen any ground, as he has nearly two minutes behind his 11th place before the WRC2 drivers.
Crash
Breen says his time loss is due to spinning twice on that stage. He says the illness that has been niggling him this week is affecting him a bit again.
Khalid Al-Qassimi
Al-Qassimi is currently running in 17th place overall, two places behind Prokop and two ahead of Solowow.
Further back, now all the SS13 times are in we can bring you news that Kubica is 22nd overall.
Al-Qassimi is asked how his stage went and immediately has to apologise for swearing...
He wasn't impressed with his driving or the broken stage surface.
He wasn't impressed with his driving or the broken stage surface.
Breen's splits suggest he might have had a problem. He lost 10th to Ogier on the last stage.
Rain
Prokop finishes Rammen, and as usual he's our weather/stage conditions update man as he's been first on the road. He reports aquaplaning... snow long gone.
This is a quick-fire loop - Rammen is about to start in a moment, and the first cars will be onto the next stage at Hagfors before the leaders complete Rammen.
Breaking news
SS13 summary:
* Everyone takes it pretty easy on the gravel to make sure they have some tyres left for SS14, which is faster and has longer corners.
* Latvala adds another 0.9s to his lead over Mikkelsen, which is now 7.5s.
* Hirvonen takes fourth back from Tanak.
* Ogier fastest again and moves up to 10th.
* Everyone takes it pretty easy on the gravel to make sure they have some tyres left for SS14, which is faster and has longer corners.
* Latvala adds another 0.9s to his lead over Mikkelsen, which is now 7.5s.
* Hirvonen takes fourth back from Tanak.
* Ogier fastest again and moves up to 10th.
Checkered flag
Overall leaderboard:
1 Latvala (VW)
2 Mikkelsen (VW) +7.5s
3 Ostberg (Citroen) +48.5s
4 Hirvonen (M-Sport Ford) +1m00.8s
5 Tanak (M-Sport Ford) +1m03.9s
6 Meeke (Citroen) +2m22.0s
7 Tidemand (M-Sport Ford) +2m34.7s
8 Solberg (M-Sport Ford) +2m41.2s
9 Evans (M-Sport Ford) +3m26.4s
10 Ogier (VW) +3m58.4s
1 Latvala (VW)
2 Mikkelsen (VW) +7.5s
3 Ostberg (Citroen) +48.5s
4 Hirvonen (M-Sport Ford) +1m00.8s
5 Tanak (M-Sport Ford) +1m03.9s
6 Meeke (Citroen) +2m22.0s
7 Tidemand (M-Sport Ford) +2m34.7s
8 Solberg (M-Sport Ford) +2m41.2s
9 Evans (M-Sport Ford) +3m26.4s
10 Ogier (VW) +3m58.4s
Checkered flag
SS13 times:
1 Ogier (VW) 10m04.9s
2 Latvala (VW) +6.6s
3 Mikkelsen (VW) +7.5s
4 Hirvonen (M-Sport Ford) +11.3s
5 Ostberg (Citroen) +12.3s
6 Meeke (Citroen) +15.8s
1 Ogier (VW) 10m04.9s
2 Latvala (VW) +6.6s
3 Mikkelsen (VW) +7.5s
4 Hirvonen (M-Sport Ford) +11.3s
5 Ostberg (Citroen) +12.3s
6 Meeke (Citroen) +15.8s
Quote
"We have nothing to lose..." Ogier declares.
Stopwatch
Ogier flies in with another stage win, and that brings him past Breen into 10th overall.
Quote
Mikkelsen drops time on the second half of the stage and is 0.9s slower than Latvala at the finish, which puts them 7s apart overall.
"I'm trying to keep up the pressure, but I'm driving around every stone I see on the line.
"I'm trying to save the tyres for the next one as it's really fast, with long corners."
"I'm trying to keep up the pressure, but I'm driving around every stone I see on the line.
"I'm trying to save the tyres for the next one as it's really fast, with long corners."
Jari-Matti Latvala
Latvala says in the forest section of the stage there was a decent amount of soft snow, then it became fully gravel.
"Great grip but very hard for the tyres," is his summary.
He's fastest so far by 5s but let's see what Mikkelsen manages.
Stopwatch
On the splits, Mikkelsen was coming back at Latvala after losing time on the last stage and it looks like the gap will close again.
Now we're waiting for our battling VW lead rivals...
Hirvonen got back ahead of Tanak on that stage to reclaim fourth, they're now 3.1s apart.
Tanak is another man who has just tried to save his tyres on this stage to make sure they have some life left for Rammen, which is next up and the longest of the leg at 22.76km.
Quote
Ostberg says he was just playing it cool, though.
"I just controlled the splits with Mikko and took care of my tyres, so I should have quite good tyres for the last stage."
"I just controlled the splits with Mikko and took care of my tyres, so I should have quite good tyres for the last stage."
He regains a little time in the battle with Ostberg on that stage, beating the Norwegian by a second.
Quote
Hirvonen gives a blunt assessment of the stage state:
"The stages are completely destroyed. There are five inch ruts in the gravel and sharp stones everywhere. For sure there will be tyre problems."
"The stages are completely destroyed. There are five inch ruts in the gravel and sharp stones everywhere. For sure there will be tyre problems."
Good time from Meeke, he's 5.2s quicker than Tidemand, his rival for sixth place so that gap is now up to 12s.
Quote
Meeke says there is some snow on the stage, but you should avoid it:
"Anything that looks white basically feels like black ice."
"Anything that looks white basically feels like black ice."
By: Matt Beer, David Evans, Scott Mitchell
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