Junior WRC in Sweden: Rådström builds big lead

Home town hero Dennis Rådström reeled off a string of five speed test wins to build a comfortable FIA Junior WRC Championship lead at Rally Sweden on Friday night.

Home town hero Dennis Rådström reeled off a string of five speed test wins to build a comfortable FIA Junior WRC Championship lead at Rally Sweden on Friday night.
Rådström, who hails from the rally’s host town of Torsby, mastered tricky roads in the frozen forests of Sweden and Norway to open a 62.8sec lead over fellow countryman Tom Kristensson after the first full day.
Rådström, runner-up in the 2018 series, led this season’s opening round after last night’s opening show stage in Karlstad, but dropped to third this morning during a fierce fight with Martin Sesks and Kristensson.
He proved unbeatable this afternoon to charge back to the front in a Ford Fiesta R2, despite two spins.
“We had a challenging day and the stages weren’t easy. The competition was quite close early on and we also made some mistakes but were able to recover really quickly. I’m aiming for another Sweden win and to do this I have a strategy - so far it’s working,” he said.
Kristensson is unfamiliar with the winter conditions but netted a stage win and led for two tests before Rådström hit top gear. He had 33.5sec in hand over Julius Tannert in third.
Roland Poom was fourth, almost two minutes off the lead, while Jan Solans and Tom Williams completed the top six.
European Under 27 junior champion Sesks made an impressive step up to the world stage. The Latvian led this morning and trailed Rådström by only 2.0sec before retiring in the penultimate stage with a mechanical problem.
Also sidelined was Raul Badiu who crashed out, while Nico Knacker lost many minutes after burying his Fiesta into the snow in the second stage.
Head to WRC+ to watch All Live from Rally Sweden, including every stage broadcast live, breaking service park news and expert studio analysis.

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