Saturday’s race at the Swedish Rally opened in the most unexpected way. The fastest car of SS9, the day’s opening round, was signed by a Hyundai. But not that of classification leader Craig Breen, but that of Thierry Neuville.
The Belgian set the best time in 5’20″2 on the 12.54-kilometre Norrby 1. A very fast test where top speeds were the main protagonists. Although at the end of his test Neuville was unhappy with what he did because little confidence in braking, the time obtained was unbeatable.
Probably his starting position today, the fourth, gave him a good advantage by virtue of the conditions of the stage and he was in any case good at taking advantage of it, thus re-entering the game for the Top 5 and, perhaps, also for the fourth place.
Kalle Rovanpera obtained the second time, 1″1 behind the Belgian. The reigning world champion was the author of a small mistake in a right-hand bend, in which he lost the rear of his GR Yaris ending up crashing slightly with the rear in a snow bank.
Kalle was lucky, because the Yaris didn’t have a pendulum effect such as to end it nose-first in the bench and he was able to continue the test.
Another rider who showed off a great performance was Craig Breen. The leader of the Scandinavian event, thanks to his third place in SS9, was able to stretch his direct rivals for success also thanks to the less convincing performances of Ott Tanak and his teammate Esapekka Lappi at the same time.
At the end of the test, the M-Sport rider stated that he still didn’t have the necessary confidence with the bike to push hard and take risks. Lappi, on the other hand, seems not to be entirely happy with the changes made to his i20 N Rally1 during last night’s Service.
With this result, Breen stretches on Tanak bringing his advantage to 4″6, while Lappi slipped to 12″8 from his teammate. Everything is open as regards the fight for first place at the foot of the podium and which involves – in order of classification – Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera and Thierry Neuville.
WRC 2023 – Rally Sweden – General classification after SS9
pos. | Pilot/navigator | Car | Time/detachment | Class |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Breen/Fulton | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | 1h02’27”1 | WRC extension |
2 | Tanak/Jarveoja | Ford Puma Rally1 | +4″6 | WRC extension |
3 | Lappi/Ferm | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | +12″8 | WRC extension |
4 | Evans/Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +28″0 | WRC extension |
5 | Rovanpera/Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +30″8 | WRC extension |
6 | Neuville/Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20N Rally1 | +35″4 | WRC extension |
7 | Loubet/Gilsoul | Ford Puma Rally1 | +1’26″0 | WRC extension |
8 | Solberg/Edmondson | Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 | +3’16″1 | WRC2 |
9 | Pajari/Malkonen | Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 | +3’33″2 | WRC2 |
10 | Veiby/Eriksen | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | +3’54″1 | WRC2 |
#WRC #Rally #Sweden #PS9 #Neuville #ringing #Breen #stretches