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After a break and a tyre change, the crews are ready to tackle the afternoon’s rallying – there is no midday service and so the likes of Botelli were set to continue to struggle with mechanical problems for the afternoon.
 First on the road was championship leader Ogier – with the course noticeably more slippery then the pre-break run (SS5), it seemed like he had performed well. However, it was soon apparent that this was not the case. ‘The wipers were blocked in the middle, I had to slow down.’ Commented a frustrated Ogier.Second on the road and second place overall Latvala made the most of this, recording a 5.36.6. This brings Ogier’s lead down to just 3.3 seconds. A surprise victory from Pirelli-shod Yuriy Protasov stole the show, however, as he recorded a time some 2.2 seconds quicker than Jari-Matti. Kubica (also using Pirelli tyres) recorded a very quick 5.37.5, giving him third place for the stage, while Thierry Neuville was another solid performer, picking up third, just one second behind Latvala.
Mikkelsen managed to use the stage to increase his lead over Ostberg, taking fifth and increasing his overall lead to 4.6 seconds. Meeke also finished in front of Ostberg in sixth. ‘My plan for this afternoon is to continue to learn. There are some quite big ruts appearing now and you have to get your front wheels in them to avoid the snow banks’ he added. Botelli was a non-starter due to his differential problems, while a similarly suffering Paddon managed to close in on the lead times by changing driving style to compensate, finishing 10.2 seconds from the stage winner. Ogier’s final finishing position was eighth, with Prokop and Evans rounding out the top ten. As the advantage of road order seems to be constantly changing, it looks like there could be some interesting stages ahead. Story: irallylive.com |
