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The next challenge for the crews is SS16, the 21.25km Jukojärvi repeat. Tension has been rising around the battle at the top – going into the stage, Jari-Matti Latvala held a 2.9 second lead over world champion Sebastien Ogier, with as little as one tenth separating them on stage times.
 However, SS16 gave Jari-Matti Latvala the chance to prove his abilities, taking an impressive 3.3 seconds out of the Frenchman’s stage time, extending that overall lead to 6.2 seconds. ‘The time is good but until I got here I wasn’t sure how it would look.’ explained Latvala at the stage end. ‘Lots of grip changes, summer rain but it turned out very well. A good one.’ Ogier’s time loss may be explained to an extent by the state of his car at the end of the stage – he’s got a chunk missing out of one of the front wheels. ‘It happened near the beginning of the stage. I was on the edge of the road, near a ditch, and we hit a rock. I thought we might have a puncture so I backed off. It was okay but not the best time.’ A regular sight on the top of the stage time boards has been Kris Meeke, but he also suffered with some very bad luck in the stage, as he broke a wheel and appears to have stopped 1.4km into the stage. He had been in third overall and was delivering an impressive performance, but it looks like he could be out. Third fastest through the stage was M-Sport’s Ott Tanak, who’s been delivering solid stage times today, recovering from a broken damper that cost him time yesterday. ‘Really difficult in the rain and we have a problem with the de-mister too – the screen is steaming up.’ It looks like his bad luck might not be over yet. Elfyn Evans, Juho Hanninen and Thierry Neuville complete the top six through the stage. There are now just two stages left of the day – the 14.95km Surkee and 15.3km Horkka repeats. SS17 begins at 17:32 local time, as the crews have a short stop to refuel before they get to it. Story by: iRallylive.com
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