MOTORSPORT NEWS

Wales WRC: Ogier maintains gap over Tanak

  Sebastien Ogier couldn’t extend his lead in the first three Saturday stages of Rally Wales but second-placed Ott Tanak only edged one second closer to the Frenchman.The duo locked out SS9 and SS10, taking a stage win each, and they set similar times in the next test as well despite being outpaced by Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Jari-Matti Latvala
Jari-Matti Latvala

While the gap between the duo only changed from 37 to 36 seconds, Tanak extended his advantage over Neuville to over 40 seconds.

The Belgian and his Hyundai teammate Hayden Paddon built a lead on Kris Meeke, who they surpassed in the final Friday stage, in third and fourth respectively.

Dani Sordo continued to hold sixth ahead of Mads Ostberg, who received a 10-second penalty for leaving the service a minute too late.

He still stayed ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala who, similarly to Andreas Mikkelsen, had his car fixed after suffering transmission problems yesterday.

Story and photo: Motorsport.com

Standings after SS11:

Pos. Driver/Co-driver Car Time/Gap
1 Sébastien Ogier
Julien Ingrassia
Volkswagen Polo R 2h09m24.8s
2 Ott Tanak
Raigo Molder
Ford Fiesta RS +36.3s
3 Thierry Neuville
Nicolas Gilsoul
Hyundai NG i20 +1m18.4s
4 Hayden Paddon
John Kennard
Hyundai NG i20 +1m25.7s
5 Kris Meeke
Paul Nagle
Citroën DS3 +1m48.4s
6 Dani Sordo
Marc Marti
Hyundai NG i20 +2m45.1s
7 Mads Ostberg
 Ola Fløene
Ford Fiesta RS +3m22.6s
8 Jari-Matti Latvala
Miikka Anttila
Volkswagen Polo R +4m02.1s
9  Stephane Lefebvre

 Gilles de Turckheim

Citroën DS3 +5m36.9s
10  Eric Camilli

 Benjamin Veillas