2023 Rally Sweden: Breen leads Hyundai’s charge on second day
10th February 2023Hyundai’s returning Craig Breen topped the timing sheets after the second day of running, edging out M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak by only 2.6 seconds.
The first full running in Sweden consisted of seven stages with a loop of three that consisted of Brattby, Sarsjoliden, Botsmark before it ended the day with a second Umea Sprint, the same stage they conducted on Thursday night.
Across the day, the field would have completed a total of 106.76km in the snow and icy conditions.
Morning
It was an emotional morning for Hyundai’s Craig Breen who collected his first stage win in his return for Hyundai, on the opening stage of the day. The Irishman put in an impressive time (6:24.8) on the opening 10.76km stage, securing the win by 3.8 seconds over Tanak.
Across the first loop, the stage wins were spread across a handful of drivers with Breen taking the first ahead of Rovanpera and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta on SS3 and SS4 respectively.
By the end of the morning stages, Tanak maintained at the top but the Estonian only had a marginal gap between himself and Breen who was 2.1 seconds behind.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi rounded out the top three, ahead of both Toyota’s Rovanpera and Katsuta who were P4 and P5 respectively.
Afternoon
On the second phase of the loop, Breen dominated the remainder of the day taking the first two stages of the afternoon (SS5 & SS6) before Tanak took top honours in stage seven.
Katsuta remained in good form in the morning but it soon went downhill on the first stage of the afternoon. In SS5, the Japanese driver brushed up against a snowbank around a fast left-hander and the Toyota was soon launched into a roll.
By the end of the day, Katsuta dropped down to P46 in the overall standings after they were forced to look for water to deal with a damaged radiator, on stage six.
Despite Rovanpera’s best efforts, securing two stage wins on Friday (SS3 and SS8), the Finnish world champion struggled to keep his Yaris out in front. The reigning world champion found himself down in fifth by the end of the day.
That’s all for the article; 2023 Rally Sweden: Breen leads Hyundai’s charge on second day!
What did you think of the second day of running? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- Rovanpera sets unbeaten SS1 time in WRC Rally Sweden
- Rovanpera tops Rally Sweden Shakedown
- 2023 WRC Rally Sweden Preview
- Rossel secures victory in Monte-Carlo after Gryazin penalty
- Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ogier remains ahead after Rovanpera attack
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