(Reuters) – M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak will lead Rally Sweden into Sunday’s final three stages after overhauling Irish rival Craig Breen on the penultimate leg.
The Estonian turned a 2.6 seconds overnight deficit into a slender 8.6 seconds advantage over his Hyundai rival on the rutted and snowy roads.
Both frontrunners suffered tyre issues in the afternoon but, on the longest day of the rally, Tanak prevailed to put M-Sport on track for the team’s first victory in more than a year.
“We had everything planned for the last two stages, to keep the tyres and make the time up there. But then we lost them, and we had to do the last stage with no studs on one tyre,” said Tanak, the 2019 world champion with Toyota.
Hyundai’s Belgian Thierry Neuville and Toyota’s reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera were battling for the final podium place after fellow Finn Esapekka Lappi ploughed his Hyundai into a snow bank and tumbled out of the top 10.
Neuville ended the day 3.8 seconds ahead of Rovanpera, who spun into an access road without losing much time, and 15.1 behind Breen.
“I think we messed up a bit with our plan for the tyres,” said Rovanpera. “We ended up with worse tyres for the last two stages and lost too much time.”
Toyota’s Welsh driver Elfyn Evans was in fifth place.
There are 63.04 competitive km to complete on Sunday before the finish in Umea.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ken Ferris)
