Sweden WRC: Neuville increases lead, Meeke crashes
Hyundai's Thierry Neuville stretched his Rally Sweden advantage to over 40 seconds during the shortened Saturday afternoon loop, which saw Kris Meeke hit a snow bank.
Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, Hyundai Motorsport
Red Bull Content Pool
The longest test of the loop, the 31.6km Knon stage, was cancelled on safety grounds, leaving just two stages in the route.
Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala, who came under pressure from the charging Ott Tanak in the morning, responded by topping SS13, albeit just 1.1s quicker than the Estonian.
However, Latvala then lost six seconds to the M-Sport Ford driver in SS14, and is now only ahead by four seconds.
Meanwhile, Neuville was quickest in SS14, and increased his advantage over Latvala to 43.3s.
Ogier continues to hold fourth, the Frenchman now relieved from some pressure as Citroen's Meeke hit a snow bank and lost more than eight minutes while his stricken C3 WRC was recovered.
The Northern Irishman made a second mistake in as many rallies, following his crash and eventual retirement in Monte Carlo.
Hyundai's Dani Sordo, the second Citroen of Craig Breen and DMACK's Elfyn Evans all gained a spot as a result of Meeke's error to round out the top seven.
Paddon, who went from sixth to 10th due to power steering problems in the morning, took two positions back by passing Meeke and the 2016-spec Citroen of Stephane Lefebvre.
Pontus Tidemand continues to lead the WRC2 class, and now completes the top 10 overall.
Standings after SS14:
Pos. | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | 2h02m41.2s |
2 | Jari-Matti Latvala | Toyota | +43.3s |
3 |
Ott Tanak |
Ford | +47.6s |
4 |
Sebastien Ogier |
Ford | +1m00.5s |
5 | Dani Sordo | Hyundai | +2m23.7s |
6 |
Craig Breen |
Citroen | +2m46.3s |
7 | Elfyn Evans | Ford | +4m23.9s |
8 | Hayden Paddon | Hyundai | +5m42.6s |
9 |
Stephane Lefebvre |
Citroen | +6m20.5s |
10 | Pontus Tidemand | Skoda | +7m15.5s |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments