Mission partially accomplished for Ott Tanakwho became the new leader of the Sweden Rally right in the final stages of the third and penultimate day of the Scandinavian round. The Estonian from Ford, who had started the Saturday stages with the aim of recovering in the general standings on Craig Breenmanaged to reach and overtake the Irishman of the Hyundai, also exploiting an episode to the detriment of the number 42.
The latter, who had resumed his afternoon activity on the occasion of the SS12 with the threat of the return of both Tänak and the couple Rovanperä-Neuville, in fact closed the first post meridiem stage only in fifth position, in a test characterized by the best time of the reigning world champion. Despite the disappointing performance, Breen still maintained the leadership in the collective time classification, at least until SS13during which the real key episode for the ‘changing of the guard’ took place: during this heat, both Breen and Lappi in fact had to deal with a delaminated rubbercrucial ‘assist’ for Tänak’s comeback, now close to overtaking the Irishman due to the second place at the end of the stage, won on this occasion by Neuville.
There comeback it is therefore completed only in the SS14, again won by Hyundai of Neuville. However, Tänak’s third time allows the Estonian of Ford to outclass Breen, thus taking the lead after the penultimate round of the day. The work is perfected with the arrival of the SS15, conquered for the third consecutive time by a Neuville in excellent shape. The Estonian finishes in fifth position, but Breen’s eighth place guarantees the Ford driver to lead the group with a advantage of 8.6 seconds on the Irishman, and almost 24 on Neuville, clearly recovering after the crisis of results in the first two days. In this way, the fight for the title of winner of Rally Sweden 2023 will be decided on Sunday morning starting at 07:05 Italian time, with the challenge that will see Ott Tänak and Craig Breen as direct protagonists, without excluding other twists that could show up on Swedish snow.
WRC | Rally Sweden: standings after SS15 – Top 10
POS. | PILOT | CAR | TIME/GAP |
1 | Ott Tanak | Ford | 1:54:45.4 |
2 | Craig Breen | Hyundai | +8.6 |
3 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +23.7 |
4 | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | +27.5 |
5 | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +57.7 |
6 | Pierre-Louis Loubet | Ford | +2:28.1 |
7 | Oliver Solberg | Skoda (WRC2) | +5:55.0 |
8 | Ole Veiby | Volkswagen (WRC2) | +6:46.6 |
9 | Sami Pajari | Skoda (WRC2) | +7:08.9 |
10 | Nikolai Gryazin | Skoda (WRC2) | +7:20.00 |
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