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Toyota World Rally Championship driver Ott Tanak leads Rally Sweden ahead of the first full day of competition after winning the Karlstad superspecial stage on Thursday evening.
Tanak, who was runner-up on the season opener in Monte Carlo last month, set a fastest time of 1m32.7s on the 1.18-mile opening test in his Yaris WRC and will carry a 0.3-second lead over team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala into Friday’s stages.
The returning Mads Ostberg, who is making a one-off appearance for Citroen in Sweden in one of the squad’s C3 WRCs, was third-fastest on the stage ahead of team-mate Kris Meeke.
Meeke was pleasantly surprised by the behaviour of his C3 and was 0.9s behind Tanak on the superspecial, but aired caution about his chances for the remainder of the rally with snow forecast overnight.
The Northern Irishman’s time was matched by the leading Hyundai of Andreas Mikkelsen, who was the last of the WRC contenders to tackle the stage.
Mikkelsen headed a Hyundai 5-6-7, with Thierry Neuville and Hayden Paddon – making his first start of the season in his part-campaign – next up.
Esapekka Lappi was eighth in his Yaris, ahead of championship leader Sebastien Ogier – who could only register the ninth fastest time.
Ogier complained of no major issues aboard his M-Sport Ford Fiesta but said he had not driven well.
He was still the fastest of the Ford contingent, with Teemu Suninen and Elfyn Evans 11th and 12th respectively and slowest of the regular WRC contenders.
Ahead of them, Craig Breen completed the top 10 in the third of the Citroen C3s.
Leading positions after SS1
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m32.7s |
| 2 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 0.3s |
| 3 | Mads Ostberg, T.Eriksen | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 0.6s |
| 4 | Kris Meeke, P.Nagle | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 0.9s |
| 4 | Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 0.9s |
| 6 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 1.0s |
| 7 | Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 2.1s |
| 8 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 2.2s |
| 9 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 2.5s |
| 10 | Craig Breen, S.Martin | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 2.9s |