February 15, 2015 – Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier emerged as the victor in an exciting and closely fought battle for the lead in the second round of the 2015 World Rally Championship that was contested in Sweden this weekend.
Ogier, who lead the way on Friday morning, lost 38 seconds in the afternoon of the same day when he hit a snowbank, dropping from 1st to 4th. However, the Frenchman made a brilliant comeback on Saturday and reduced the gap to main rivals Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) to 8 seconds.
Neuville went into the final day with a 1.5-second lead, but it was Andreas Mikkelsen who set the fastest times on Sunday, moving into the lead with one more stage to go. The Norwegian looked set for victory but a spin in the final split of the final stage meant that he lost precious seconds to Neuville and Ogier and had to settle for 3rd place overall.
Ogier won the power stage to finish the rally 6 seconds ahead of Neuville, while Mikkelsen completed the event 40 seconds behind the leader after that costly mistake.
M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak inherited fourth place when Citroen’s Mads Ostberg went off on Sunday’s opening stage; Tanak finished Rally Sweden more than 2 minutes off the lead.
