Daniel Carlsson took his second Uddeholm Swedish Rally stage win in a row as Sebastien Loeb's brave attempt to nurse his sick second-placed Citroen to the end of the event failed, when the car stopped before the stage. The Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo winner and pre-event points leader appears to be out of the rally.
Carlsson beat Mitsubishi's Gigi Galli to the top time on the second run through Rammen by just 0.7 seconds as both went for it in the bid for championship points. Carlsson is now up to sixth following Loeb's retirement. Galli looked to be in danger of losing eighth to Skoda's Janne Tuohino and was given instructions to push. He did just that, and now finds himself in a safe seventh. He's not going to go for it in the last stage, though. "I need, I have, I must to arrive," said the Italian.
Carlsson says he'll be trying hard again on SS20 though, and that's because he's got a good chance of moving up to fifth place. His target should be not Henning Solberg, who currently holds the place, but Harri Rovanpera who is fourth, but has now lost fifth gear. Harri was ninth equal on this one with Markko Martin, and just 0.9s ahead of Henning and 12 seconds ahead of Carlsson, who beat him by 12.2s on this one.
Mattias Ekstrom turned in an excellent third best time in his Skoda and could now score manufacturer points despite his big power-steering problems yesterday. That's partly because his team-mate Janne Tuohino looks to be out of the rally after taking a wheel and front corner off near the end of the stage as he tried to overhaul Galli.
Toni Gardemeister set the fourth best time on the stage, matching his pace to the split times of Rovanpera. Toni is now an excellent third overall. Roman Kresta was fifth quickest ahead of Henning Solberg, Petter Solberg and Anthony Warmbold.
Markko Martin is also now nursing a car to the finish. He's confident he'll bring the 307 home in second place, but thinks he's broke something in the transmission and is finishing the car very hard to drive. He's over a minute ahead of Gardemeister overall.
-wrc-
