Neuville wins Rally Sweden

February 18, 2018 0 Comments

Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul have won Rally Sweden today in their Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, finishing 19.8 seconds ahead of Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC), whose second pace is the best WRC result ever by a driver from southern Ireland.

Wearing Stilo WRC Zero helmets, Neuville/Gilsoul dominated the event, with a spin on Saturday morning their only small mistake. They now lead the WRC standings and will be first on the road at Rally Mexico (9-11 March).

“An incredible result”, said Neuville. “We had a disappointing start to the season in Monte-Carlo, but we didn’t let that get us down. We kept focused and targeted a strong result here in Sweden. We knew the competition would be tough for the win but we came here with the objective to bounce back, and we did that perfectly. We didn’t expect to take the lead so early in the weekend, so we have had to be clever to defend the gap at times, and then increase it when we could. I felt we deserved the win last year, but perhaps even more so this weekend. I was never going to push in the Power Stage because the victory meant too much to risk, so to come away with two extra points is great. We’re now leading the championship, so our 2018 campaign is back on track. Thanks to everyone in the team. We have many people working tirelessly every day behind the scenes to give us a competitive car, one with which we can fight for victories like this. This win is for all of them; it’s been a fantastic weekend for us.”

Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jæger completed the podium, finishing third behind Breen/Martin in their works Hyundai.

Esapekka Lapp/Janne Ferme were the top placed Toyota Yaris WRC crew in fourth, ahead of Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall who completed a truly excellent event for Hyundai Motorsport in fifth.

Mads Østberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) were sixth, Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) seventh and Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula the top placed Ford Fiesta WRC finishers in eighth.

Reigning World Rally Champions Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia had a torrid time in Sweden, running first on the road and acting as chief snow sweeper in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC. They scored points on the closing Power Stage, but uncharacteristically finished outside the top 10 in 11th place.

Likewise, it was an event to put down to experience for Elfyn Evans/Dan Barritt, who finished 10th.

Finland-based Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta won WRC2 in his Tommi Makinen Racing-run Fiesta R5, beating the works Skoda Motorsport Fabia R5s of reigning champion Pontus Tidemand and Ole Christian Veiby.