Ogier finished the first leg of the rally with a 26 second lead over the Hyundai of New Zealander Hayden Paddon with the Fords of Mads Ostberg and Ott Tanak in third and fourth places.
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Karlstad – Triple world champion Sebastien Ogier of France held his overnight lead in the Rally of Sweden after Saturday’s first four specials.
But, later on Saturday, Paddon made the most of the conditions to cut 23 seconds out of the Frenchman to narrow his overall deficit to 8.8 seconds.
Waterford’s Craig Breen is in ninth place in the second Citroen, 1:15 down on the leader.
High flying Hayden Paddon in his new generation Hyundai i-20.
Elfyn Evans carries a 17.9s lead over Pontus Tidemand in the WRC2 category into the final stage as he bids for a second win from as many starts after his class victory in Monte Carlo. In what would be a significant move, Paddon and Kennard were able to take advantage of their road position – a clearer line in the falling snow from earlier competitors – and push on to win Friday’s final two stages.
“It’s about maintaining my position now”, Paddon said. “We went into the 16th stage (the penultimate run of the day) 10sec behind Ogier and that’s like a minute to anyone else”, said the Kiwi driver. “We struggled a bit in there, I think we used our studs in the stage before”.
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At the end of the opening day only 15 seconds separated Paddon in second and Mikkelsen in sixth, with Ostberg’s only 0.1s behind in the chasing pack. The stage starts on a narrow and twisty road but becomes wider and more flowing.
