February 13, 2016 – Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier kept a stranglehold on the 2016 Rally Sweden lead after the second day of action that witnessed the completion of five special stages on Saturday.
Despite winning two of today’s stages, Ogier’s lead was reduced from 26 seconds to 16 as Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon made up for lost time and is now more than 40 seconds clear of third-placed man M-Sport Ford’s Mads Ostberg.
Jari-Matti Latvala set the fastest time in three special stages, but he’s still very far off the lead in 22nd overall and is unlikely to enter the top 10 following his costly mechanical problem yesterday.
Andreas Mikkelsen enjoyed a fruitful day, moving from 6th to 4th in the standings after outperforming Ford driver Ott Tanak and Hyundai driver Dani Sordo who are now fifth and sixth respectively.
Overall standings after SS17 (SS11, SS13 & SS15 cancelled):
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastien Ogier | Volkswagen Motorsport | Volkswagen | 1h50m25.8s |
| 2 | Hayden Paddon | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 15.9s |
| 3 | Mads Ostberg | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 42.6s |
| 4 | Andreas Mikkelsen | Volkswagen Motorsport II | Volkswagen | 1m07.1s |
| 5 | Ott Tanak | DMACK World Rally Team | Ford | 1m32.9s |
| 6 | Dani Sordo | Hyundai Motorsport N | Hyundai | 1m56.7s |
| 7 | Henning Solberg | Adapta Motorsport | Ford | 2m17.6s |
| 8 | Craig Breen | Abu Dhabi Total WRT | Citroen | 2m19.1s |
| 9 | Elfyn Evans | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 4m45.0s |
| 10 | Pontus Tidemand | Skoda Motorsport | Skoda | 5m03.1s |
