Ogier plays it cool as Loeb closes

Sebastien Ogier’s Rally Sweden lead was eroded by Sebastien Loeb on the final morning, but the Volkswagen driver was confident he would not come under threat.

Loeb began Sunday with a trio of stage wins, bringing his Citroen to within 20.7 seconds of Ogier.

A calm Ogier insisted he was just protecting his lead, and with only three stages to go, VW still looks to be on course for its maiden World Rally Championship win with the new Polo R WRC.

Mads Ostberg and Jari-Matti Latvala remain locked in a tight battle for third.

Ostberg felt his Qatar M-Sport Ford might need set-up changes, while Latvala believes a driving style rethink is necessary to get the best out of the VW. They are currently five seconds apart.

Dani Sordo has moved up from 10th to eighth, overhauling Martin Prokop and benefiting from penalties for Henning Solberg, who was late at the first change having had to repair an alternator problem on the road section.

Leading positions after SS19:
 
Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
  1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW                  2h47m11.8s
  2.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen                + 20.7s
  3.  Mads Ostberg        Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 1m16.1s
  4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW                   + 1m21.1s
  5.  Evgeny Novikov      Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 2m09.5s
  6.  Thierry Neuville    Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 4m10.9s
  7.  Juho Hanninen       Qatar M-Sport Ford   + 5m04.3s
  8.  Dani Sordo          Citroen              + 9m31.5s
  9.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford           + 9m51.1s
 10.  Henning Solberg     M-Sport Ford        + 10m43.8s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/world-rally-championship-news/wrc/ogier-plays-it-cool-as-loeb-closes

François Hesnault Hans Heyer Damon Hill Graham Hill Phil Hill