Sebastien Ogier maintained his impressive start to the World Rally Championship season by coming out on top in a thrilling three-car battle to win the Rally of Sweden on Sunday (February 15).
Double world champion Ogier, who won the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally, slid off the road on Friday (February 13) while leading, forcing him to chase after new leader Volkswagen team mate Andreas Mikkelsen for most of Saturday (February 14).
However Belgium’s Thierry Neuville excelled on Saturday’s l
ate stages, catching Ogier and taking the lead from Mikkelsen on the final stage of the day to lead by 1.8 seconds overnight.
Hyundai i20 driver Neuville suffered with intercom problems on the day’s first special stage, mishearing his co-driver’s instructions and sliding into a snow bank.
Mikkelsen looked to be heading for his first WRC victory in the final stage before clipping a bank and losing nearly 43 seconds.
Frenchman Ogier, who is hunting a third consecutive global crown, held his nerve to take the victory. He finished 6.4 seconds ahead of Neuville with Mikkelsen coming in third.
Ogier was taken by surprise by the win, realizing he was the victor only when he saw television pictures of Mikkelsen’s car being pushed back onto the road by spectators.
Afterwards he was jubilant, saying he had had to drive “flat out, flat out from the beginning to the end.”
As he was chasing the leaders during most of the rally the Frenchman had been forced to run the stage first most of the time, known as ‘opening the road,” which is a disadvantage.
“Even by opening the road 85 percent of the rally we won! It’s an amazing victory, so happy, so proud,” he shouted, before climbing on the car roof in celebration.
Ogier now has a 23-point lead over both Neuville and Mikkelsen, who both have 30 points in the standings.
Big loser was Ogier’s other Volkswagen team mate Jari-Matti Latvala who lost over eight minutes on Friday and finished 12th overall. He is now fourth in the championship with 19.
The third race of the season is the Rally of Mexico from March 5-8.
(Reuters)