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Rally Sweden - Finish
Precious points for Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia climbed onto the podium at Rally Sweden on Sunday to pick up some valuable championship points.
During this second, gruelling round of the season on extremely slippery roads, the M-Sport driver, as championship leader, had to cope with the role of road sweeper on day one. Fifth in the overall standings at the end of a leg which comprised the longest competitive distance of the three, he then produced a series of solid performances that hoisted him first to fourth and then third place in the rankings after leader Thierry Neuville's error during the evening Super Special stage.
However, any ideas Sébastien Ogier might have had of closing the 16.6 seconds separating him from the race leader were ended after a spin at the start of the final day. With his third place, the Frenchman also scored a four-point bonus in the Power Stage and remains in touch with new leader Jari-Matti Latvala in the championship.
Sébastien Ogier:
"We weren't helped by our starting position nor by the fairly difficult weather conditions and we had to fight hard in the weekend's stages to the extent that we finished without a single best time for the first time in ages. After two difficult first days, we still had a slight chance of going for victory on Sunday, even though making up 16 seconds was always going to be problematic. In the end we didn't really have the opportunity to try because I immediately made a pretty stupid mistake which killed off any chance. So we ended up taking it fairly easy for the rest of that last leg with the aim of securing our third place before attacking the Power Stage and going for a few extra points."
"The combination of the little mistakes I made and the fact that I wasn't yet 100% at ease with the car meant that Rally Sweden wasn't perfect. But all in all I'm fairly satisfied with the final outcome and those extra 19 points in the championship make it a positive result in the end. I'd like to congratulate Toyota and our former team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala on their excellent debut and their first victory together."
"The next rally will be Mexico, one of the most difficult for opening cars, and for the first time since 2014, Julien and I will not be the first out in the starting order. That's not going to radically change our lives in any way, but it will give us a little, much appreciated help. We have two days of tests between now and then to prepare the car for gravel and get ourselves as well prepared as we possibly can. "
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