Rally: Neuville and his feel for snow
WIN FOR HYUNDAI Thierry Neuville won the second round of the World Rally Championship in Sweden in a Hyundai i20 WRC. While the Belgian skillfully exploited his starting position on snow, it was a disadvantage for world champion Sébastien Ogier that could only be made up for with a trick. Hyundai Motorsport won for the first time at the deep-winter Rally Sweden, as did Thierry Neuville with [...]
Hyundai Motorsport won for the first time at the deep-winter Rally Sweden, as did Thierry Neuville with co Nicolas Gilsoul. It is the eighth WRC triumph for the brand and the seventh for the Belgian.
The not particularly good performance at the Rally Monte Carlo paid off for Neuville (P5 at the WRC opener) as well as for the other two teams on the podium. Since the first two stages of the day are started on the basis of the WRC standings, the fresh snow on the stages meant a big disadvantage for the drivers who had been top-placed at the Monte.
World champion and WRC leader Sébastien Ogier had to play snowplow with his Ford Fiesta WRC and lost almost three minutes to the front runners on the first leg in twelfth place. This was formed by the Hyundai trio of Thierry Neuville, Andreas Mikkelsen and Hayden Paddon.
While Neuville did not relinquish the lead from the third of the total of 19 special stages to the finish and won by 19.8 seconds, Mikkelsen fell behind the equally skillful Irishman Craig Breen (best WRC result to date) on Citroën C3 WRC. Paddon still finished fifth. Neuville and Hyundai now lead both WRC tables.
Only one chance for world champion Ogier
Because none of the factory drivers had any major problems apart from one or two spins, Ogier only just made it into the top ten. Thanks to a time penalty he accepted, he started the final Power Stage late, which earned him not only a point for 10th place but also four more points for second place in SS19.
Ott Tänak, a brilliant second-place finisher at the Monte with Toyota, finished ninth after initially leading the race. Last year's winner Jari-Matti Latvala brought his Yaris WRC home in seventh place despite problems with the front differential and an equally unfavorable starting position.
In fourth place, Finland's Esapekka Lappi, who became known in Switzerland as the winner of the 2013 and 2014 Rally du Valais (both times on Skoda Fabia S2000), was the best-placed Toyota driver. In contrast to the Rally Monte Carlo, no Swiss driver was on the grid in Sweden.
