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Saturday’s leg of Rally Poland action begins with SS10, the 17.7km Mazury test. The stage is filled with high speed straights as well as multiple surface changes from cobbles to gravel, asphalt and sand. A forest section 4.3km in features soft banks – the drivers need to be careful not to clip them.
 Rally leader Sebastien Ogier has begun the day with another stage win – the Frenchman is facing roadsweeping duties but is still delivering the times. ‘A good stage but there is a lot of loose gravel, so soft tyres the right choice. Let’s see how the road cleaning will affect me.’ he commented. Second quickest through the stage was Hayden Paddon – the Kiwi has shown huge potential on gravel this year and is clearly pushing hard today. He’s 1.3 seconds off Ogier’s pace but keen to improve. ‘In car it felt really bad,’ he explained. ‘We went over the data with our engineering last night and established a few things I wasn’t doing right. I tried to improve in there but can do more.’ A further 1.6 seconds down on time was Andreas Mikkelsen, who complained of visibility issues. ‘I’m trying to fight for victory but there is so much dust in here I just couldn’t see. I need a three-minute gap. I really hope the organisers do something.’ Opening up the stage starting gaps would of course slow the whole speed of the rally, although may become necessary if the problems continue. The top six was completed by Jari-Matti Latvala, Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville. Having lead the rally for much of the day yesterday despite brake problems, Tanak’s pace was expected to be a little faster in his newly repaired M-Sport Fiesta, but it was put down to an early mistake in the stage. ‘I spun near the start and we had to stop and turn around. I’m disappointed.’ We can expect a hard push from the Estonian throughout today. The crews now head to SS11, the 12.87km Wieliczki test. It begins at 09:30 local time. |
