Tanak eases clear as Suninen slips back

Top 15 classification after SS11 at Rally Sweden

Ott Tanak holds a useful 33.8-second lead on Andreas Mikkelsen as nearest rival Teemu Suninen becomes the latest high-profile name to slip off in the snow.

With Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Sebastien Ogier retiring after crashing off a snow bank on SS6, while Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a similar fate on SS8, Tanak had been being chased by Suninen.

But the M-Sport Ford driver was caught out by a snow bank having drifted wide during SS10 and despite being able to restart the Finnish driver lost over one minute to drop from second place to eighth.

Suninen’s mistake saw Mikkelsen promoted to second place for Hyundai and ended Saturday’s morning loop over 30 seconds back from long-time leader Tanak.

After an impressive charge through Friday’s afternoon stages, Elfyn Evans has been promoted to the final provisional podium spot but is under pressure from Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Citroen’s Esapekka Lappi. Neuville trails Evans by 1.1s with Lappi just one second off him in fifth place.

Kris Meeke also remains in the podium hunt six seconds behind Lappi in the Toyota, with nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb slotting into seventh place ahead of Suninen.

Local favourite Pontus Tidemand continues to get up to speed for M-Sport Ford in ninth place with WRC 2 leader Ole Christina Veiby rounding out the top 10 for Skoda.