Sebastien Ogier regained the lead in today’s final stage as Volkswagen colleague Andreas Mikkelsen ceded his advantage to save tyres.
Ogier was fastest through the second pass of Torsby by 1.5sec from Mads Ostberg, but it was Mikkelsen’s performance and comments which raised eyebrows. The Norwegian was sixth, dropping six seconds to Ogier to end the leg 5.8sec adrift.
“We could have chosen to take new tyres now, but then we would have used tyres tomorrow morning. I preferred to lose time here and have new tyres in the morning. It would have been nice to fight for the lead overnight but it’s a long rally and that’s what we must think about,” he said.
Ott Tanak, probably the driver of the day, was third in the stage and he overnights just 2.6sec behind third-placed Jari-Matti Latvala. Another good performance came from Kris Meeke, who was fourth fastest.
| Pos. | # | Driver | Cat. | Time | Diff / Prev | Diff / 1st |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 9 | MIKKELSEN | T | 1:33.4 | ||
| 2. | 1 | OGIER | M | 1:34.2 | +0.8 | +0.8 |
| 3. | 11 | TANAK | 1:35.6 | +1.4 | +2.2 | |
| 4. | 2 | LATVALA | M | 1:35.8 | +0.2 | +2.4 |
| 5. | 5 | HIRVONEN | M | 1:36.0 | +0.2 | +2.6 |
| 6. | 16 | SOLBERG | 1:36.4 | +0.4 | +3.0 | |
| 7. | 4 | ØSTBERG | M | 1:36.6 | +0.2 | +3.2 |
| 8. | 8 | HÄNNINEN | M | 1:36.6 | +0.0 | +3.2 |
| 9. | 7 | NEUVILLE | M | 1:36.8 | +0.2 | +3.4 |
| 10. | 3 | MEEKE | M | 1:37.3 | +0.5 | +3.9 |
| 11. | 15 | TIDEMAND | 1:37.9 | +0.6 | +4.5 | |
| 12. | 10 | KUBICA | T | 1:38.4 | +0.5 | +5.0 |
| 13. | 33 | KETOMAA | WRC2 | 1:38.8 | +0.4 | +5.4 |
| 14. | 21 | PROKOP | T | 1:38.9 | +0.1 | +5.5 |
| 15. | 37 | BERTELLI | WRC2 | 1:39.3 | +0.4 | +5.9 |
| 16. | 32 | PROTASOV | WRC2 | 1:39.5 | +0.2 | +6.1 |
| 17. | 41 | KRUUDA | WRC2 | 1:40.0 | +0.5 | +6.6 |
| 18. | 6 | EVANS | M | 1:40.0 | +0.0 | +6.6 |
| 19. | 14 | SOLOWOW | 1:40.2 | +0.2 | +6.8 | |
| 20. | 31 | AL RAJHI | WRC2 | 1:40.3 | +0.1 | +6.9 |