Thierry Neuville, Sebastien Ogier resume their battle with opening Super Special Stage: WRC
Karlstad, 15 Feb 2019: Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier resumed their battle where they left off on Rallye Monte-Carlo: the pair separated by 0.8s after Rally Sweden’s short opening superspecial in Karlstad in first and second place. Neuville’s team-mate at Hyundai, Andreas Mikkelsen, is only 0.3s behind in third on Thursday night.
Wet and slushy road conditions welcomed the drivers on Karlstad’s 1.9km superspecial, causing quickly forming ruts on the arena’s surface. Ogier went wide with his Citroen in the last corner on the outside loop, a fate that befell several drivers in this section of the track. Ott Tänak, third on the Rallye Monte-Carlo podium, was not one of them, and finished fourth fastest, 1.9s behind Neuville.
Finnish drivers dominated the bottom half of the Top 10. In his 197th start in the series, Jari-Matti Latvala marked a momentous occasion, going fifth fastest. Teemu Suninen and Esapekka Lappi were next for M-Sport and Citroen in sixth and seventh respectively, while two-time FIA World Rally Champion Marcus Grönholm marked his one-off return after nine years away from the WRC with the eighth fastest time, at the wheel of a private team entry Toyota Yaris WRC.
Ahead of several WRC’s top drivers, FIA WRC 2 Pro leader Eerik Pietarinen navigated his factory Skoda Fabia R5 to ninth quickest overnight, tied with Toyota’s Kris Meeke and FIA WRC 2 pilot Jari Huttunen.
This meant several factory WRC drivers were outside the Top 10: Elfyn Evans, Pontus Tidemand and nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb, all within six seconds of stage winner Neuville.
Rallye Sweden – Unofficial results after Section 1
| 1 | Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul | Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | 1min 34.9sec |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia | Citroen C3 WRC | 1min 35.7sec |
| 3 | Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jǽger | Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | 1min 36.0sec |
| 4 | Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja | Toyota Yaris WRC | 1min 36.8sec |
| 5 | Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila | Toyota Yaris WRC | 1min 36.9sec |
| 6 | Teemu Suninen / Marko Salminen | Ford Fiesta WRC | 1min 37.6sec |
| 7 | Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm | Citroen C3 WRC | 1min 37.9sec |
| 8 | Marcus Gronhölm / Timo Rautiainen | Toyota Yaris WRC | 1min 39.0sec |
| 9 | Kris Meeke / Sebastian Marshall | Toyota Yaris WRC | 1min 39.3sec |
| 10 | Eerik Pietarinen / Juhana Raitanen | Škoda Fabia R5 | 1min 39.3sec |
