Stage report

WRC Rally Sweden

Sweden WRC: Tanak seals victory with Power Stage win

Ott Tanak sealed Rally Sweden victory after taking a dominant win on the Power Stage, vaulting into the lead of the WRC standings.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Feb 22, 2019, 10:44 AM

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Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC

Toyota driver Tanak took a comfortable 48.8-second lead into the 8.93-km Power Stage, a second run through Torsby.

But the Estonian was in no mood to cruise to victory, winning the final test of the rally by 3.5s ahead of nearest rival Thierry Neuville - securing the maximum available score of 30 points.

Tanak therefore moves into a seven-point lead in the championship standings ahead of Hyundai's Neuville.

"It's amazing to win here," said Tanak. "I know how hard my friend Markko [Martin, Tanak's fellow Estonian] was pushing and he got very close. I'm very relieved to get it.

"On the Power Stage I just went with a good rhythm again - just a bit faster than normal but no risks. It was a good stage."

Esapekka Lappi, Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen began the stage split by less than 10 seconds in the fight for second place behind Tanak, with Lappi and Neuville separated by only 4.4s.

Citroen driver Lappi looked in danger of dropping behind Neuville after dropping time early on, but he managed to end strongly and drop only one second, allowing him to keep the runner-up spot.

Mikkelsen was a disappointing ninth on the Power Stage, but the Hyundai driver narrowly kept fourth place overall ahead of Elfyn Evans, who was third-fastest in his M-Sport Ford.

Citroen pair Sebastien Ogier - who was ruled out of contention after hitting a snowbank on Friday - and Lappi completed the scorers on the Power Stage, Ogier taking the fourth-best time despite being among the first runners.

Kris Meeke (Toyota) and Sebastien Loeb (Hyundai) retained sixth and seventh places respectively ahead of Pontus Tidemand (M-Sport Ford).

Ole Christian Veiby scored WRC2 victory in ninth overall, beating nearest rival Mads Ostberg by almost two minutes. Privateer Ford driver Janne Tuohino split the pair in 10th.

Final results:

Pos. # Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Gap 1 8

Estonia Ott Tanak
Estonia Martin Jarveoja

Toyota 2h42m14.9s 2 4 Finland Esapekka Lappi
Finland Janne Ferm Citroen +53.7s 3 11

Belgium Thierry Neuville
Belgium Nicolas Gilsoul

Hyundai +56.7s 4 89

Norway Andreas Mikkelsen
Anders Jaeger

Hyundai +1m05.4s 5 33

United Kingdom Elfyn Evans
Scott Martin

Ford +1m08.2s 6 5 United Kingdom Kris Meeke
Sebastian Marshall Toyota +1m38.8s 7 11

France Sébastien Loeb
Monaco Daniel Elena

Hyundai +1m49.7s 8 7 Sweden Pontus Tidemand
Norway Ola Floene Ford +3m37.7s 9 21

Norway Ole Christian Veiby

Jonas Andersson

Volkswagen +6m34.0s 10 92

Finland Janne Tuohino

Finland Mikko Markkula

Ford +8m21.4s

WRC points standings:

Pos. Driver Car Points 1

Estonia Ott Tanak

Toyota 47 2

Belgium Thierry Neuville

Hyundai 40 3

France Sébastien Ogier

Citroen 31 4

United Kingdom Kris Meeke

Toyota 21 5

Finland Esapekka Lappi

Citroen 19 6 France Sébastien Loeb Hyundai 18 7

United Kingdom Elfyn Evans

Ford 13 8 Norway Andreas Mikkelsen Hyundai 13

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