Somewhat surprisingly, it was Dani Sordo who took the lead when Rally Sweden started with a super special stage on Thursday evening. The Spaniard, who drives Mini WRC, was 0.3 seconds ahead of Norwegian Mads Østberg who in turn had the same lead over third placed Ott Tänak.
The Super Special Stage Show, which opened this year’s Rally Sweden, was a success with many close battles in front of a large and devoted audience. About 10,000 spectators were on site in the cold to cheer on the drivers.
The evening’s heat between Petter Solberg and reigning World Champion Sébastien Loeb was undoubtedly the crowd favorite.. In a tough duel the pair crossed the finish line in exactly the same time. Solberg and Loeb were 1.2 seconds behind the leader Sordo.
Other drivers who made the top-ten leaderboard on Rally Sweden’s first special stage were, MikkoHirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala, Patrik Sandell, and Prokop, and Richard Göransson. The rally proper began Friday. ––Paul Duchene
