Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier resumed their battle where they left off on Rallye Monte-Carlo: the pair separated by 0.8s after Rally Sweden’s short opening superspecial in Karlstad in first and second place. Neuville’s team-mate at Hyundai, Andreas Mikkelsen, is only 0.3s behind in third.

Wet and slushy road conditions welcomed the drivers on Karlstad’s 1.9km superspecial, causing quickly forming ruts on the arena’s surface. Ogier went wide with his Citroen in the last corner on the outside loop, a fate that befell several drivers in this section of the track. Ott Tänak, third on the Rallye Monte-Carlo podium, was not one of them, and finished fourth fastest, 1.9s behind Neuville.

Finnish drivers dominated the bottom half of the Top 10. In his 197th start in the series, Jari-Matti Latvala marked a momentous occasion, going fifth fastest. Teemu Suninen and Esapekka Lappi were next for M-Sport and Citroen in sixth and seventh respectively, while two-time FIA World Rally Champion Marcus Grönholm marked his one-off return after nine years away from the WRC with the eighth fastest time, at the wheel of a privat team entry Toyota Yaris WRC.

Ahead of several WRC’s top drivers, FIA WRC 2 Pro leader Eerik Pietarinen navigated his factory Skoda Fabia R5 to ninth quickest overnight, tied with Toyota’s Kris Meeke and FIA WRC 2 pilot Jari Huttunen.

This meant several factory WRC drivers were outside the Top 10: Elfyn Evans, Pontus Tidemand and nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb, all within six seconds of stage winner Neuville.

Rallye Sweden – Unofficial results after Section 1