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The 14.76km stage of Torsby 2 has turned out to be a rally-changer, with Mikkelsen the new rally leader. Ogier suffered an incident with a snow bank, losing him almost 40 seconds, while Latvala crashed into a ditch causing a delay of over eight and a half minutes. Numerous spectators were the only thing that could get him out, but it has most likely cost him the rally.
 While a relatively minor mistake from Ogier, previously the rally leader, has cost him the lead and put him down to fourth overall, Latvala’s mistake has undoubtedly cost him any chance of a top eight finish. ‘After a long, long straight we hit a right-hand corner too fast. I saw gravel and expected the grip to be better. The rear hit the snow bank and it pulled in the front. Then the whole car was sucked in.’ he added. This puts him down to ninth overall. This moves stage winner Thierry Neuville, finishing in 8:40.4, into second overall and second place stage finisher Andreas Mikkelsen into the rally lead, having finished one second behind. When told of the news, he replied ‘Am I? Well, that makes things interesting. Sad for them, but if I know Ogier he won’t give up.” Kris Meeke pulled through with another fantastic drive to third place, leaving him eighth overall. He was followed by fellow brit Evans, just one tenth behind him. Tanak and Paddon round out the top six, while the ever-improving Sordo stand-in Abbring finished seventh, just 5.6 seconds off the pace of Neuville. Ostberg, Protasov and Solberg complete the top ten, with Ogier’s eventual finishing place was well down the order, still some 1.38.8 ahead of Kubica, who is suffering with a differential problem. After a regroup and refuel, the crews will head into the second running of the 1900m Super Special in Karlstad tonight, following which the cars will venture to the Hagfors service park for some much-needed attention Story: irallylive.com
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