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Sweden WRC: Ogier leads, Latvala and Neuville in trouble

Sebastien Ogier kicked off Rally Sweden by establishing a lead of 24 seconds after the three Friday morning stages.

Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia, Volkswagen Polo WRC, Volkswagen Motorsport

Photo by: Volkswagen Motorsport

The Frenchman was fastest in all three runs, but claimed the majority of his gap in the third one - despite damaging his car's front by losing control on a water splash.

His closest challenger was Volkswagen teammate Andreas Mikkelsen, who wasn't far off the pace in the first two stages but lost time at the same spot Ogier did in the third test.

The Norwegian was just four seconds ahead of Citroen's Kris Meeke, while top Hyundai driver Dani Sordo held fourth.

Mads Ostberg and Ott Tanak were separated by just 1.3s in fifth and sixth, followed by Hayden Paddon, who is driving the new Hyundai i20 for the first time.

Jari-Matti Latvala was the first driver of the top class to have issues as he suffered a broken driveshaft in the opening stage, which forces him to run in two-wheel drive mode for the rest of the day.

"It happened after a jump before a corner," said Latvala, who is already four minutes behind. "I have no idea why. A mechanical problem I think. Just one of those things."

Hyundai's Thierry Neuville dropped from third place to tenth with transmission troubles in the final run, costing him a minute.

Standings after SS4:

Pos. Driver / Co-Driver Car Time/Delay
1

 Sebastien Ogier

 Julien Ingrassia

VW 31m13.2s
2

 Andreas Mikkelsen

 Anders Jaeger

VW 24.2s
3

 Kris Meeke

 Paul Nagle

Citroen 28.7s
4

 Dani Sordo

 Marc Marti

Hyundai 30.2s
5

 Mads Ostberg

 Ola Floene

Ford 36.2s
6

 Ott Tanak

 Raigo Molder

Ford 37.5s
7

 Hayden Paddon

 John Kennard

Hyundai 45.7s
8

 Henning Solberg

 Ilka Minor-Petrasko

Ford 1m15.3s
9

 Craig Breen

 Scott Martin

Citroen 1m15.7s
10

 Theirry Neuville

 Nicolas Gilsoul

Hyundai 1m42.0s

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