Toyota tames the snowstorm
JARI-MATTI LATVALA HAD a superb weekend as he managed to win Rally Sweden in his Toyota Yaris WRC, the team’s first win in just their second rally after a 16-year hiatus from the championship. Ott Tanak and Sebastien Ogier finished second and third on the podium for M-Sport.
Jari-Matti started the rally on pace, finishing the Super Special 0.6 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuveille. Neuville took over the lead after the first full stage however, he clipped a rock in SS4 and that sent him back to second place. Kris Meeke also managed to post some quick times, being second quickest in one of the stages and was placed third at the end of the first day. Meanwhile Ogier was the first car out on to the stages and had to sweep them, could not post competitive times and trailed the lead by 19.1 seconds.
From then on, Neuville showed his pace, and built up a sizeable lead over the second place Latvala. By the end of the first day, Neuville had extended his lead in the front to 28.2 seconds while Latavla and Tanak in second and third respectively. Ogier’s sweeping cost him more time, putting him in fifth behind Kris Meeke, 55 seconds off Neuville.
A stage on day 2 was cancelled as the FIA ruled that it was dangerous owing to the higher speeds the 2017 WRC cars are capable of. Meanwhile, Ogier began catching up, moving in to fourth past Citroen’s Kris Meeke. Ott Tanak began roping the second place Latvala in as well, while Neuville went about extending his lead in the front. Meeke was in fifth place when he lost control of his car after going too hot on to a bend and crashed in to a snow bank — he lost eight minutes trying to extricate his beached car.
However, disaster struck Neuville on the 1.9km Super Special stage at the end of day two — he crashed and damaged his steering, knocking him out of the lead and destroying any chance he had of winning the rally. Latvala inherited the lead, but Ott Tanak was just 3.8 seconds behind him and Ogier a further 12.8 seconds behind.
It would have been a close fight to the finish, but Tanak suffered from a loose rear end and Ogier spun out on a corner, giving Latvala some breathing room. Latvala went on to win from Tanak and Ogier. At the end of the second round, Latvala leads the championship with 48 points, followed by Ogier with 44 points and Tanak with 33 points.L