WRC Rally Sweden 2019
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What a ride! Ott Tanak showed us some of his late 2018 form this weekend with what transpired to be a dominant win. That power stage performance goes to show that he perhaps wasn't pushing as hard as he could have been once Latvala and Suninen were out of the equation.
We'll have plenty of post-Sweden news in the coming days before the next round of the championship, Rally Mexico, on March 7-10. Until then, here's a final recap of this week's Rally Sweden action. It's been a pleasure to bring you all the action this weekend, and thanks for following along with us. Goodbye!
We'll have plenty of post-Sweden news in the coming days before the next round of the championship, Rally Mexico, on March 7-10. Until then, here's a final recap of this week's Rally Sweden action. It's been a pleasure to bring you all the action this weekend, and thanks for following along with us. Goodbye!
Ole Christian Veiby has also completed the stage safely to wrap up WRC2 victory.
It's his second career win in the class, his first coming back in 2017 on Rally Poland.
It's his second career win in the class, his first coming back in 2017 on Rally Poland.
Janne Tuohino was due to start after all the WRC2 and JWRC cars originally but there's clearly been some rejigging of the running order, as he was sent out after Tanak.
He dropped 0.9s to Ostberg on Torsby but that's enough to hold on to 10th place, 3.1s up on the WRC2 Pro winner overall.
He dropped 0.9s to Ostberg on Torsby but that's enough to hold on to 10th place, 3.1s up on the WRC2 Pro winner overall.
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And confirmation that Tanak ran away up front, Lappi clung on to second and Mikkelsen just held fourth. Just.
Unofficial Rally Sweden classification
1. Tanak 2h47m30.0s
2. Lappi +53.7s
3. Neuville +56.7s
4. Mikkelsen +1m05.4s
5. Evans +1m08.2s
Unofficial Rally Sweden classification
1. Tanak 2h47m30.0s
2. Lappi +53.7s
3. Neuville +56.7s
4. Mikkelsen +1m05.4s
5. Evans +1m08.2s
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So, a quick recap of the power stage results, with Tanak getting five points, running down to one point for the fifth fastest driver.
SS19 Torsby power stage results
1. Tanak 5m15.120s
2. Neuville +3.562s
3. Evans +4.441s
4. Ogier +4.637s
5. Lappi +4.958s
SS19 Torsby power stage results
1. Tanak 5m15.120s
2. Neuville +3.562s
3. Evans +4.441s
4. Ogier +4.637s
5. Lappi +4.958s
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That also hands Tanak the lead of the championship with 47 points in all, 30 of those scored here. Incredible.
Tanak smashed everyone there. He wins the power stage by 3.5s over Neuville.
Checkered flag
Ott Tanak takes a commanding Rally Sweden victory!
Tanak is now 2.9s up at the second split. He's rubbing salt into the wounds here, having already disappeared off into the distance in the overall classification.
He's going for 30 points, then!
Bwoah.
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Tanak is flying! He's two seconds up on Neuville at split one!
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"I expected the conditions to be worse in the beginning to be honest, so I was too cautious. But I started to push there!" says Lappi.
Lappi is also fourth in the power stage classification right now, though we still have rally leader Tanak yet to complete the stage.
Lappi crosses the finish line aaaaand....he saves it! A great final sector - helped by a long straight to finish - means he crosses the line only 1.3s down on Neuville. He holds second. Phew!
Stopwatch
MAYBE! The gap at split two is 4.1s! This is going to be really close!
It's a 4.4s gap between them, just to remind you. Surely Neuville can't take second here. Surely?
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Lappi is 2.5s down at the first split!
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"We were not able to fight with Lappi really in the fast sections, we are missing something on the straights. In the twisty sections we could fight," says Neuville.
Torsby's a pretty twisty stage, the final blast to the finish line aside, so he should have a chance here.
Torsby's a pretty twisty stage, the final blast to the finish line aside, so he should have a chance here.
Lappi in second is next. That was a good time from Neuville, but was it stealing-second-place-at-the-death good?
Stopwatch
Neuville goes fastest with a 5m18.6s, 0.8s up on Evans' best.
Neuville is 1.1s up on Evans at the second split - and flies over the jump when entering the arena!
Neuville is 0.5s up on Evans' first split. That's slower than Ogier but it seems the second half of the stage has improved a little for the later runners. So he could win maximum bonus points here!
Lappi and Neuville are separated by 4.4s in the battle for second place. It's now Neuville's turn to set a time. What can he do here?
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That was a little too close for comfort in terms of retaining fourth place too. Evans was the next car behind. The final gap between them? 2.8s.
Mikkelsen is 3.6s off the pace and sixth fastest. No extra points for him!
It's now a 2.4s gap between Evans and Mikkelsen at the second split. He might not get any bonus point here either.
Mikkelsen is 1.1s down on Evans' benchmark at the first split. He was second when we began the morning and he's now down to fourth. It appears unlikely he'll get any of those places back here.
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A quick recap of the power stage positions with four WRC drivers still to go;
1. Evans
2. Ogier
3. Meeke
4. Latvala
5. Loeb
1. Evans
2. Ogier
3. Meeke
4. Latvala
5. Loeb
Ogier clearly had a very strong opening section but faded towards the end on his run. He did mention it was a bit worse for him down around the arena section with a build up of slush.
Evans goes fastest! He's 0.1s faster than Ogier!
Evans is up three tenths on Meeke at the second split.
Evans is dead level with Meeke at the first split, which is 2.0s slower than Ogier's run up to that point.
Meeke reports a steering issue after hitting a "massive" bump on this stage. He did a pretty good job of driving around it based on his stage time!
As Latvala is well down the order due to his retirement on Friday, Meeke will bag some points for his Toyota team with sixth place here too.
Elfyn Evans has already set off further up the road, but no splits for him just yet.
Meeke falls short of Ogier by 0.5s, going second fastest.
Meeke is second fastest and 1.1s off Ogier at the second split.
Meeke has 9.2s in hand over Loeb but is almost half a minute off fifth-placed Elfyn Evans ahead, so he can focus on power stage points and not worry too much about his position.
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"I'm happy to be at the finish. We did some good times, some less good times, but we understand quite a few things over the weekend, so it's not so bad," says Loeb, summarising his weekend. It's been a bit of a low key return to Sweden, six years on from his last appearance here with Citroen.
By: Matt Beer
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