Andreas Mikkelsen, who led after last night’s opening super special stage, regained top spot when he was quickest through the second pass of the 16.82km Finnskogen test.
The Norwegian was 0.7sec faster than Volkswagen colleague Sebastien Ogier to move into a 0.2sec advantage. His motivation? “When you see so many Norwegians cheering you on, you want to do well!” he said.
Ogier was first through the stage and predicted his own demise. “I think Andreas is going to be faster. The [driving] lines are not so good for me. The cars that last drove the stage are not World Rally Cars and I lost the rear of the car a few times."
Jari-Matti Latvala was third fastest despite nudging a snow bank, 1.0sec behind Ogier, and that was sufficient to preserve Volkswagen’s domination of the top three.