Czech Černý, who started the ice and snow
event at the top of the standings after he won the Rally3-based category on
Rallye Monte-Carlo last month, began Friday afternoon’s loop of four stages
leading by 13.5sec.
But an off two kilometres from the start of
SS5 left his Ford Fiesta Rally3 with significant front-end damage, although the
winner of SS1 is set to restart on Saturday’s second leg following repairs.
Describing his Rally Sweden debut as
“another dream come true” prior to the start, Černý posted a simple “I am
really sorry” message on social media.
He later explained what had gone wrong: “We
hit a snowbank and damaged the cooling circuit and it was impossible to
continue. It has been very difficult, many ruts have formed and with a narrower
car than Rally1 and Rally2 the situation became e very complicated. Now we just
have to think about making fix to try to get as many points as possible between
now and Sunday.”
Johansson, stepping up to the WRC after a
season in Junior ERC, was fastest on SS2 and SS4 and couldn’t be beaten on SS6
and SS7. As well as leading the Junior WRC division, the 18-year-old is 44.8sec
in front of Romet Jürgenson, part of the four-strong FIA Rally Star team and
the quickest WRC3 contender on SS5.
Fabio Schwarz, the son of WRC event winner
Armin Schwarz, is third overnight followed by Raúl Hernández, Eamonn Kelly and
Jose Caparo.
FIA Rally Star Taylor Gill was firmly in
the lead fight when two damaged tyres put him out of contention on SS6.
Filip Kohn hit back from a double deflation
on SS7 to set the WRC3 pace on SS8.
Jakub Matulka, a frontrunner in ERC3 last
season, was fastest on SS3 and was in sixth place among the WRC3 contenders,
when he crashed on SS5.
Rally Sweden continues with SS9, Vännäs, from 07:45 local time tomorrow
(Saturday).
Finland
Italy
Hungary