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WRC Rally Sweden 2019
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The overall top 10 has shifted for the second successive stage. And we have a brand new rally leader, topping a WRC classification for the first time in his short career. No pressure, Teemu.
Overall classification after SS6 Svullrya
1. Suninen 56m14.3s
2. Latvala +5.7s
3. Tanak +8.0s
4. Mikkelsen +26.0s
5. Meeke +38.9s
6. Evans +40.0s
7. Neuville +45.1s
8. Lappi +50.1s
9. Loeb +52.2s
10. Tidemand +1m17.3s
Overall classification after SS6 Svullrya
1. Suninen 56m14.3s
2. Latvala +5.7s
3. Tanak +8.0s
4. Mikkelsen +26.0s
5. Meeke +38.9s
6. Evans +40.0s
7. Neuville +45.1s
8. Lappi +50.1s
9. Loeb +52.2s
10. Tidemand +1m17.3s
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Anyway, here's the top 10 times from stage six. Ogier is conspicuous in his absence here.
SS6 Svullrya stage results
1. Suninen 12m43.9s
2. Loeb +5.2s
3. Mikkelsen +5.9s
4. Evans +6.0s
5. Tanak +6.1s
6. Latvala +7.5s
7. Meeke +8.9s
8. Lappi +10.5s
9. Tidemand +12.6s
10. Neuville +13.6s
SS6 Svullrya stage results
1. Suninen 12m43.9s
2. Loeb +5.2s
3. Mikkelsen +5.9s
4. Evans +6.0s
5. Tanak +6.1s
6. Latvala +7.5s
7. Meeke +8.9s
8. Lappi +10.5s
9. Tidemand +12.6s
10. Neuville +13.6s
Crash
Lorenzo Bertelli is having fun and games playing in the Swedish snow. He gets greedy on the inside of a corner, snaps the snowbank and gets tipped into a spin. Standard Rally Sweden fare.
Evans can't replicate his stage-winning turn of pace from the previous test but he's still put in a decent time here, good enough for fourth fastest. He's up to sixth now, passing Neuville and inheriting a place from the absent Ogier.
He didn't mention the dreaded U word, at least. That's a start. He's now eighth after his team-mate Ogier's off, though his advantage to Loeb behind has now shrunk to 2.1s.
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"We are struggling as all are struggling," says an empathetic Lappi. "We are missing our splitter so we have no front aero."
Lappi has a small moment, very similar to that of his team-mate Ogier at the start of the last stage, getting sucked into a small snowbank which he simply drives out of. Maybe a few tenths lost. Nothing more.
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"We saved tyres a bit too much on the previous stage," says Mikkelsen. "This time we had a clean stage. It's hard to be comfortable to push in these conditions. It was not a perfect stage. I need to improve."
Mikkelsen's set a handy time here. He's 5.9s off Suninen's rapid time but adds an extra 3s to his advantage over fifth-placed Meeke and keeps Tanak in third pegged, 18s up the road.
On the plus side for Tidemand, Ogier being stranded in that snowbank (still!) means he'll very likely move into 10th place after this stage and potentially earn a point for himself.
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"I struggled a bit with understeering," he explains of his pace through here. Still, better than the throttle problem that blighted his run this morning.
Pontus Tidemand in the third M-Sport Fiesta is struggling again. He's slower than everyone bar Neuville through here.
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"That's really good," says Suninen matter-of-factly after being told of his stunning stage time and move to the lead. "Big moments but, OK, that's the game and we have to go flat out."
Stopwatch
Teemu Suninen leads a World Rally Championship round for the first time in his career! He's fastest through the stage with a 12m43.9s.
Latvala arrives at stage end and says he's happy with his time. But he's 7.2s down on Suninen at the final split!
Loeb seems happier with his performance here, for good reason. He has a decent chance to narrow his 7.4s deficit to Esapekka Lappi in ninth with that time.
Stopwatch
But it's Suninen and Latvala behind who are of greatest interest and there's a potential lead change here! Suninen is 4.4s up on Latvala at the third split, which would give him the lead.
Sebastien Loeb goes quickest. For now.
Meeke is 2.8s down on Tanak at stage end but, more importantly, increases his advantage to Neuville behind.
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"They were moving really bad in the end," Tanak says of the studs on his tyres.
"The conditions are so bad with the slush and everything. It's undriveable, same thing happened with Seb [Ogier] I guess. It's even worse now with one car in the front," he concludes.
That's a good point – Neuville will be first on the road for the rest of today with Ogier absent, with Tanak now second. Not good news for either of them.
"The conditions are so bad with the slush and everything. It's undriveable, same thing happened with Seb [Ogier] I guess. It's even worse now with one car in the front," he concludes.
That's a good point – Neuville will be first on the road for the rest of today with Ogier absent, with Tanak now second. Not good news for either of them.
Tanak rocks up at stage end 7.5s ahead of Neuville. But it's Latvala and Suninen he'll care about, and he's down on both at the first split.
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Neuville has arrived at stage end.
"They [Ogier & Ingrassia] went off the road. They are trying to get back on the road I guess but it's in a very narrow place, so we had to slow down a lot. Very tricky conditions," he says.
Neuville's own off into a snowbank on the previous test is now having repercussions.
"In the fast section without the aerodynamics I'm understeering like hell."
"They [Ogier & Ingrassia] went off the road. They are trying to get back on the road I guess but it's in a very narrow place, so we had to slow down a lot. Very tricky conditions," he says.
Neuville's own off into a snowbank on the previous test is now having repercussions.
"In the fast section without the aerodynamics I'm understeering like hell."
Anyway, turning away from the stranded Ogier and to drivers that are still running; Tanak is the pace-setter so far at the third split. His team-mate Meeke is next-best, 2.9s off.
Loeb though is faster than Tanak at the second split. Has he finally found that elusive rhythm?
Loeb though is faster than Tanak at the second split. Has he finally found that elusive rhythm?
Now Tanak flies past Ogier's stranded car. There's still no-one around that Citroen. That's four minutes and counting lost.
Lots of drivers have gone into and then gotten out of snowbanks today. But there's usually a common theme in those cases; spectators at hand to lift the car out. There's no-one where Ogier has gone off.
Neuville has just passed. The rear end of Ogier's Citroen is pointing out partially onto the road but the Hyundai can still pass safely at speed.
The back end of his C3 clipped a snowbank at speed, which pitched him to the left and nose-first into a snowbank. He's now stuck.
Ogier climbs out of his C3. This looks bad!
Crash
Ogier has stopped!
Tanak is, predictably, ahead of both Ogier and Neuville at the first split. 2.1s up on Neuville, to be exact. Though it's really Suninen and Latvala's he locked in battle with, and we won't see either of them for a little while yet.
Neuville's all of 0.6s up on Ogier at the first split.
Ogier's on his way. Now we wait for Neuville to set-off. The pair are separated by only 0.3s in their battle – a battle that's had both of them sinking progressively down the leaderboard as the day's gone on.
David Evans
Sebastien Loeb admitted the difference in speed between himself and the frontrunners is more than he expected. “I’m not sleeping in the stages,” he said. “But you can see the front guys are doing times that are all close together – they have no hesitation. This is where I’m struggling a little bit: I need to find the rhythm and I need to find the confidence. I didn’t really expect this. It’s not easy, I can feel and I can see sometimes I brake and I know they will be flat. The speed and grip here is high, it’s the biggest difference from the aero here.”
Meanwhile Sebastien Loeb, he of nine world titles, is struggling to keep up with the field aboard his Hyundai. In amongst that big order reshuffle on Hof-Finnskog, he dropped from ninth to tenth, further compounding his problems. He's not particularly happy with his pace, as he told DAVID EVANS earlier.
David Evans
Autosport’s lunchtime interview with Jari-Matti Latvala was interrupted by Kalle Rovanpera’s arrival. The Toyota driver asked to be excused from our questions to go and talk to his countryman about his visit to a Svullrya snowbank. When he returned he immediately offered an extensive debrief of the nature of corner and reason for the Skoda driver’s departure from the road.
He then moved on to talk about another Finn: Teemu Suninen. On the subject of the M-Sport driver, J-ML said: “I have expected this kind of speed from Teemu. We have seen it in Finland and we have seen it on some rallies. I knew when everything was good for him with the set-up, he would be fast. And, don’t forget, he is hungry guy as well.”
Latvala was clearly less hungry – he hadn’t even touched his sandwich before it was time to go into service…
He then moved on to talk about another Finn: Teemu Suninen. On the subject of the M-Sport driver, J-ML said: “I have expected this kind of speed from Teemu. We have seen it in Finland and we have seen it on some rallies. I knew when everything was good for him with the set-up, he would be fast. And, don’t forget, he is hungry guy as well.”
Latvala was clearly less hungry – he hadn’t even touched his sandwich before it was time to go into service…
Speaking of WRC2 Pro drivers getting stuck in snow, that topic came up in DAVID EVANS' midday service chat with Jari-Matti Latvala. Along with a certain other young Finn that's right on his tail at the moment...
Firstly, for those curious from earlier, Greensmith dropped out of contention for victory in WRC2 Pro (though he was already half a minute behind leader Mads Ostberg, in fairness) due to getting stuck in a snowbank on Hof-Finnskog. Hence the 1m30s+ time drop. Typical Sweden!
Welcome back! Ogier is scheduled to kick us off with SS6 in about six minutes. But until then, a few more bits and pieces to cover.
Right, with that bit of unique insight into Rally Sweden now provided (tissues not included), Autosport is popping off for a quick break. And maybe a Lemsip.
We'll be back at 14:10 GMT (15:10 local time) for the next stage, once the crews have finished fitting light pods to their cars in preparation for the next three stages, starting with a re-run of Svullrya. See you soon!
We'll be back at 14:10 GMT (15:10 local time) for the next stage, once the crews have finished fitting light pods to their cars in preparation for the next three stages, starting with a re-run of Svullrya. See you soon!
David Evans
A lunchtime chat with Sebastien Ogier included the usual talk of understeer, dampers, springs… and sneezing. The Frenchman has been suffering from a cold since Sunday. With his car confirmed as fine, Autosport pressed him to ask about sneezing in the stage.
“I didn’t do this this morning,” he said, “but it can really disturb you. Fortunately, once the adrenalin starts flowing, it doesn’t ever really happen. My cold is OK. It’s not bothering me, it’s not really getting any better or any worse. It’s no problem.”
“I didn’t do this this morning,” he said, “but it can really disturb you. Fortunately, once the adrenalin starts flowing, it doesn’t ever really happen. My cold is OK. It’s not bothering me, it’s not really getting any better or any worse. It’s no problem.”
By: Matt Beer
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