WRC Rally Sweden 2019
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A quick clear-up on the Gronholm situation; his penalty is 1m50s and it's because he checked into the regroup in Karlstad late. He's fine in terms of this stage.
Ogier punches in the second fastest time, 2.2s off Neuville's brilliant effort.
For now it's Sebastien Ogier on the stage, who's back under Rally2 rules today after his trip to a snowbank yesterday.
Mikkelsen and Lappi will need to be on their toes to make sure they keep Neuville behind after that.
He's smashed Loeb's time here, setting a 1m56.8s!
Neuville is currently making his way through the stage. He's the lowest placed of three drivers fighting for second right now.
Stopwatch
He's got it back in the end! Loeb gains 0.7s relative to Meeke, which also makes him the fastest driver through here for now.
Loeb is now 1.6s off Meeke heading to overnight service.
Loeb is now 1.6s off Meeke heading to overnight service.
Loeb isn't able to keep pace with Meeke through here so far. It appears that gap between sixth and seventh might get wider instead of narrower here.
That's a decent effort from Tidemand. He's third on this stage as it stands, one second slower than Meeke. And that's eighth overall in the bank, perhaps higher if someone were to make an unfortunate error.
Meeke sets a 2m00.0s on the nose. So he's now quickest. Lets see what Loeb can do when it's his turn. For now though, Pontus Tidemand is on his way.
Speaking of, sixth placed Kris Meeke is on his way. Can he take a few vital tenths over the chasing Sebastien Loeb here?
Janne Tuohino goes second quickest here, 3.8s slower than Latvala. We'll be getting to our Top 10 runners now.
Either the timing system is broken or Bertelli has penalty too. That's odd!
Gronholm finishes the day with a time 6.8s off Latvala's time through Torsby Sprint.
Marcus Gronholm will get a 10s penalty as he's checked in a minute late for this stage. But the run itself looks OK so far.
That was pretty tidy. He's 7.9s off Latvala's time.
We've got Lorenzo Bertelli up now. For those who don't know the name, he's an amateur driver rather than a professional, piloting a Ford Fiesta WRC which he owns. He's well outside the top 10.
He sets the benchmark with a 2m00.8s.
It's all clean and proper from Latvala so far.
Jari-Matti Latvala gets us underway. This stage uses a bit of yesterday's main Torsby stage but, luckily for Latvala, not the specific bit where he went off into a snowbank while fighting for the lead!
Welcome back to Autosport Live for Rally Sweden's final stage on Saturday, a blast around Torsby Sprint. It's a short one at 1.74 miles but that doesn't mean there's nothing to play for.
Lappi has a real shot at taking second place away from Mikkelsen here. And Neuville might fancy a run at his team-mate too, though he's a little further back than Lappi.
Lappi has a real shot at taking second place away from Mikkelsen here. And Neuville might fancy a run at his team-mate too, though he's a little further back than Lappi.
There's only 0.4s between Mikkelsen and Lappi heading to our final stage of the day, Torsby Sprint. It's a shortened version of the stage we finished with yesterday, which caused plenty of drama. And was won by a WRC2 driver. Short but exciting! Don't miss it.
We'll be back in an hour with live coverage. Stay tuned.
We'll be back in an hour with live coverage. Stay tuned.
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To recap how that's affected the various battles, Lappi has put Mikkelsen under immense pressure for second, though Loeb's efforts to catch Meeke for sixth took a small knock.
Overall classification after SS15 Karlstad 2
1. Tanak 2h17m31.7s
2. Mikkelsen +56.4s
3. Lappi +56.8s
4. Neuville +1m00.0s
5. Evans +1m09.2s
6. Meeke +1m36.5s
7. Loeb +1m38.8s
8. Tidemand +3m07.0s
9. Veiby +5m21.5s
10. Huttunen +5m36.5s
Overall classification after SS15 Karlstad 2
1. Tanak 2h17m31.7s
2. Mikkelsen +56.4s
3. Lappi +56.8s
4. Neuville +1m00.0s
5. Evans +1m09.2s
6. Meeke +1m36.5s
7. Loeb +1m38.8s
8. Tidemand +3m07.0s
9. Veiby +5m21.5s
10. Huttunen +5m36.5s
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Right, just as well I waited for the stage wrap-up because Huttunen inserted himself into the top stage times there! Here's how the crews fared on that quick blast around Karlstad's arena.
SS15 Karlstad 2 stage times
1. Tanak 1m36.0s
2. Lappi +0.6s
3. Ogier +1.0s
4. Neuville +1.2s
5. Huttunen +1.4s
6. Meeke +1.5s
7. Mikkelsen +2.1s
8. Rovanpera +2.5s
8. Evans +2.5s
10. Latvala +2.9s
SS15 Karlstad 2 stage times
1. Tanak 1m36.0s
2. Lappi +0.6s
3. Ogier +1.0s
4. Neuville +1.2s
5. Huttunen +1.4s
6. Meeke +1.5s
7. Mikkelsen +2.1s
8. Rovanpera +2.5s
8. Evans +2.5s
10. Latvala +2.9s
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Can Huttunen catch Veiby for the WRC2 class win?
"I don't know. For sure I try but I don't know. It looks like it, it shouldn't be too much."
He sounds reluctantly confident. A strange concept, but Huttunen has always been a man of few words.
"I don't know. For sure I try but I don't know. It looks like it, it shouldn't be too much."
He sounds reluctantly confident. A strange concept, but Huttunen has always been a man of few words.
Huttunen is the fastest R5-specification car through and also fifth fastest overall, well in amongst the top WRC cars.
The rear of Huttunen's Skoda Fabia looks a bit second hand! The rear windscreen is missing. He's clearly been on the edge all afternoon.
Huttunen appears to be a fair bit ahead of his duel partner Emil Lindholm after the first tour.
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"First loop was really good, we catch some more time, second loop we struggled with the car and the tyres. We lost a bit but we still have quite a good lead," says WRC2 leader Veiby at stage end.
We'll follow Jari Huttunen's progress though this stage and then recap the action from Karlstad in a moment.
Veiby has a bit of a nose-heavy landing over one of the smaller jumps but continues on unhindered. He's leading WRC2 at the moment. But Jari Huttunen is closing in behind.
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Johan Kristoffersson has stalled at the start of his duel with Ole Christian Veiby!
WRC2 Pro has been a battle of attrition. Eerik Pietarinen and Lukasz Pieniazek are the next pair, who are fourth and fifth in class. Both have been into snowbanks but, in Pieniazek's case, he had to retire on Friday due to damage and restart this morning.
M-Sport mechanics hard at work fixing Suninen's damaged rollcage.
Back to Torsby and DAVID EVANS has gone from journalist to photographer. M-Sport's mechanics are still hard at work, as you can see above.
Rovanpera and Greensmith are the next pairing, with Rovanpera going seventh fastest overall.
Factory Skoda driver Rovanpera had been catching Citroen's WRC2 Pro team leader Ostberg for the lead but an issue on the rerun of Hagfors earlier this afternoon sent him back by nearly three minutes. So it's Ostberg's to lose now.
Factory Skoda driver Rovanpera had been catching Citroen's WRC2 Pro team leader Ostberg for the lead but an issue on the rerun of Hagfors earlier this afternoon sent him back by nearly three minutes. So it's Ostberg's to lose now.
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"We had a great day. I'm sure we're benefiting from our road position," says Tanak. "Yesterday was the big job and today we just have to be smart. We are still doing our best,"
Usually I'd declare Tanak stage winner but Jari Huttunen won Torsby outright yesterday evening long after the WRC cars had finished up for the day. Such is rallying!
No repeat of 2017 here. Tanak passes through safely, going fastest with a 1m36.0s. Ostberg meanwhile is 12th.
Tanak is our last WRC car through, with Suninen out. He's paired against WRC2 Pro leader Mads Ostberg.
By: Matt Beer
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