Sébastien Ogier led throughout the first full day of competition of Rally Sweden, the Frenchman capitalising on his road position this morning to take a 26.9 second advantage overnight. Hayden Paddon has climbed from sixth to second in his first outing in the new generation Hyundai i20 WRC and heads a chasing Mads Østberg who is just 6.8 seconds further adrift. Both Paddon and Østberg remain under fire however, the rivals in a thrilling five-way fight for second position.

Unseasonably warm weather in the whole of Scandinavia caused much concern for the organiser earlier in the week, forcing the cancellation of some stages as the much needed snow and ice melted. However, the event got underway as scheduled today and the crews tackled two identical loops of three snow-covered stages in both Sweden and Norway. Ogier took the advantage from the outset, winning the first three stages to pull out a 24.2 second lead over team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen by the mid-day regroup. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the FIA World Rally Champion however, an off into the trees after a water splash resulting in damaged steering. He also overshot a junction this afternoon and struggled more in the repeated stages. As such, his rivals running later took more of an advantage this afternoon. Nevertheless, the Polo R WRC driver has a comfortable lead over Paddon who has moved up the leaderboard this afternoon, aided by his later road position. The New Zealander had an overheating problem this morning but set two fastest stage times this afternoon to inch ahead of the cluster of drivers chasing second position. Østberg struggled to get into the groove early in the day, but he too enjoyed a great road position this afternoon once snow started to fall in the stages.

Ott Tanak is just 1.1 seconds behind Østberg, the first of the non-Michelin runners and he heads Dani Sordo, the Spaniard’s Hyundai also suffering with water overheating. Andreas Mikkelsen, second this morning, was - unlike Ogier - lucky to escape damage after the water splash scare, but then hit a tree stump, spun and lost time this afternoon which dropped him to seventh. He has moved into sixth ahead of WRC returnee Henning Solberg but remains in the fight for second overall. Behind Solberg, Craig Breen is making his DS 3 world rally car debut and impressing. Third fastest through one stage has aided his charge and he overnights in eighth. Eric Camilli, competing in his first snow rally, is ninth for the M-Sport World Rally Team and Lorenzo Bertelli rounds off the top 10.

The biggest casualties of the day were Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke, bad luck once again befalling them. In the opening stage Latvala broke the front left drive-shaft two kilometres before the end of the stage and, during a day without any mid-day service, he was forced to continue throughout with two-wheel drive. Then, in the final stage, he broke the suspension on the Polo and was forced into retirement. Meeke was one of Ogier’s nearest challengers and the Northern Irish driver was holding second when, in a situation reminiscent to Rally Monte-Carlo, he hit a rock and was unable to continue. Thierry Neuville has also had a disappointing day, the Belgian with a transmission problem this morning that left him limping through the remaining stages.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Elfyn Evans is fighting hard against the might of the local drivers and the Welshman, who won the category in Monte-Carlo, takes a 17.1 second advantage overnight. He heads Swede Fredrik Åhlin with Norway’s Anders Grøndal third. Michel Fabre is the only contender in the FIA WRC 3 Championship category, but the French Citroen driver has made it through the day.

Rally Sweden – Unofficial results after Section 3