The third day of Rally Sweden has passed. Ott Tänak leads after the day, but Craig Breen is right behind him.
Loop One
SS9, NORRBY 1
Stage nine would see Thierry Neuville take his first stage win of the season, beating Kalle Rovanperä by 1.1 seconds. Craig Breen would place third on the stage, 0.3 seconds behind Rovanperä. Elfyn Evans would place fourth on the stage, 1.5 seconds behind Breen. Esapekka Lappi would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.1 seconds behind Evans.
SS10, FLODA 1
Stage 10 would see Craig Breen take another stage win, beating Kalle Rovanperâ by 0.8 seconds. Thierry Neuville would place third on the stage, 0.2 seconds behind Rovanperä. Ott Tänak would place fourth on the stage, 0.1 seconds behind Neuville. Elfyn Evans would round out the top five, finishing the stage 3.7 seconds behind Tänak.
SS11, SÄVAR 1
Stage 11 would see Kalle Rovanperä win another stage, beating Thierry Neuville by 1.3 seconds. Ott Tänak would place third on the stage, 0.1 seconds behind Neuville. Esapekka Lappi would place fourth on the stage, 0.2 seconds behind Tänak. Takamoto Katsuta would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.9 seconds behind Lappi.
Loop Two
SS12, NORRBY 2
Stage 12 would see Kalle Rovanperä win another stage, beating Ott Tänak by 0.2 seconds. Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi would tie third on the stage, each 0.8 seconds behind Tänak. Craig Breen would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.5 seconds behind Neuville and Lappi.
SS13, FLODA 2
Stage 13 would see Thierry Neuville win another stage, beating Ott Tänak by 2.9 seconds. Kalle Rovanperä would place third on the stage, 0.5 seconds behind Tänak. Craig Breen would place fourth on the stage, 0.7 seconds behind Rovanperä. Elfyn Evans would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.4 seconds behind Breen.
SS14, SÄVAR 2
Stage 14 would see Thierry Neuville take yet another stage win, beating Esapekka Lappi by 0.2 seconds. Ott Tänak would place third on the stage 0.6 seconds behind Lappi. Craig Breen would place fourth on the stage, 2.8 seconds behind Tänak. Kalle Rovanperä would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.1 seconds behind Breen.
SS15, UMEÅ 1
Stage 15 would see Thierry Neuville win yet another stage, beating Esapekka Lappi by three seconds. Takamoto Katsuta would place third on the stage 0.6 seconds behind Lappi. Kalle Rovanperä would place fourth on the stage, 0.2 seconds behind Katsuta. Ott Tänak would round out the top five, finishing the stage 0.2 seconds behind Rovanperä:
Neuville’s Finding Pace
Thierry Neuville won four of the seven stages on day three of Rally Sweden. This would move Neuville from sixth at the end of day two, to third at the end of day three. As Neuville now sits just 15.1 seconds behind his Hyundai teammate Craig Breen for second place. Neuville would likely be higher but Neuville would miss the pre-event test due to illness. Meaning he came into the rally basically blind on what to expect. As his only real taste of what to expect with the new car came at the shakedown stage.
Top Five Times After Rally Sweden Day Three
- O. Tänak 1:54:45.4
- C. Breen 1:54:54.0 (+8.6)
- T. Neuville 1:55:09.1 (+23.7)
- K. Rovanperä 1:55:12.9 (+27.5)
- E. Evans 1:55:43.1 (+57.7)
My name is Joe Moore. I am a writer for Belly Up Hockey, Belly Up Racing, and Belly Up Sports. You can find me on Twitter.
