Вся галерея мероприятияUntil the last moment of the second stage of the World Rally Championship — Rally Sweden — was threatened with cancellation. The sudden thaw and rains completely washed away the snow and ice from the special stages, located in Sweden, turning them into the ground. Normal winter conditions were preserved only on the special stages that were built in Norway, but they were only part of the total distance.
A few days before the start of the organizers were forced to go out to trim the distance of the race. Number of special stages was reduced from 21 to 13. After the first day of the rally was canceled another ext.
But most importantly, that the Rally Sweden started successfully passed and as a result turned out to be more interesting than the first stage of the season.
Swedish WRC stage had two features. Firstly, as we have already mentioned, the race was held on the territory of the two countries — Sweden and Norway. Secondly, in any of the three days was not provided for the race daily service. If the crew had problems, he was forced to tolerate them until the evening.
And the first — already a sad tradition — faced with adversity Jari-Matti Latvala. Already on the first special stage of the race in the Finn car cut the left front wheel drive and his Volkswagen Polo R WRC was the rear-wheel. Hardly Latvala finished the special stage and was reached for the spare semiaxis. In each car before the start of the mechanics put a certain set of spare parts for field repair.
But it was a drive in the set and has not appeared. As a result of Jari-Matti drove the first day, losing by a half or two minutes on each special stage.
The third special stage company Latvala was Thierry Neuville — transmission brand new Hyundai i20 WRC 2016 Belgian threw really quite strange trick: as a result of crew stayed with the... one drive wheel!
Third place, which at the beginning of the technical problems of the Korean team took the driver turned into 26th by the end of the first day. The victory and even a podium could forget...
Another contender for the podium — Kris Meeke from the semi-works Abu Dhabi Racing — came from the fact that lying on the roadside stone twisted his front right suspension. Irishman actually repeated his «feat», which he made on the Monte Carlo Rally.
No luck and Andreas Mikkelsen, who made a mistake in one of the corners, and crashed into a tree stump. His Volkswagen launched, followed by the Norwegians had to spend time trying to get back into the fight. The result — a drop from the second position to the seventh, and with it the loss of a chance of winning.
Thus, Sebastien Ogier is simply no rivals left. The Frenchman has won three of the first special stage of the race, two more Friday SU was in the leading group and once became the eighth. That was enough for him to finish the day in first place with a margin from the second-ranked Hayden Peddon almost half a minute! It is done?
So let's not. And the Frenchman dared to protest one of whom did not expect this — the New Zealand pilot Hyundai team. Peddon finally got their hands on the latest i20 WRC 2016 (in Monte Carlo he was driving the old car) and it worked just perfectly. If Neville have suffered from problems with the transmission, and Dani Sordo was driving with an eye on the engine overheated, then Hayden... just led a fierce struggle with himself Ogier!
On SS12 Peddon «brought» Ogier incredible twenty-odd seconds, which allowed him to close the gap to the Frenchman to 8.8 seconds. All those who watched the fight Hayden and Seba, holding their breath...
But it was not there. Launched first Augier lost time on the first day of the second section due to the fact that during the night special stages covered with snow still. But for the second passage of the snow and ice have been dug up participants to the gravel that radically changed the alignment. Now Sebastien has already lost so much time, and rode in the pace of its rivals, and even faster. As a result, the second day ended just as the first — Ogier the lead, but lost him Peddon 17.1 seconds.
On Sunday, the participants had to overcome only one special stage and everyone understood that in the group of leaders will not fight — at 16 kilometers from Ogier dopa play more than a second per kilometer unrealistic. And the rest of the gap to the top 8 were even more.
As a result, Sebastien Ogier won a second victory of the season of the two possible. Moreover — and this is the second consecutive victory with maximum points Frenchman twice won the Power Stage. In light of the fact that his main rivals for two races faced with all sorts of troubles, the results of the winter season for Seba Do not look nearly perfect.
Latvala has not yet scored any points, only one Mick, Neville did not get anything in Sweden, Mikkelsen instead of the podium in Sweden ranked only fourth place. Not the most optimistic start to the season...
It is hoped that a white stripe and a black Ogier for his rivals swapped. Otherwise, the intrigue will be killed before the European stages WRC.
Photo: Andrew Fomchenkov / RALLYSPORT PA
