Saturday’s programme featured just four stages, but ‘Nambucca’ (50.80km, two passes) was the fourth-longest test of the season after ‘Guanajuatito’ (Mexico, 55.82km), ‘Agua de Oro-Ascochinga’ (Argentina, 51.99km) and ‘Lardier & Valencia’ (Monte-Carlo, 51.70km).
The first visit (SS9) was won by Hayden Paddon (Hyundai, 28m25.1s) which delighted the Kiwi’s many fans who have made the trip to New South Wales. Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) was second best, ahead of Ott Tanak who was happier with the handling of his Ford after a front differential change.
The same stage saw Meeke (Citroën) ease 2.6s clear of Latvala in the overall standings, while Ogier (VW) limited the damage of running second on the road and moved up to fourth overall (+3.6s). In contrast, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo fell back after dropping around half-a-minute each.
Paddon also won SS10 (7.94 km), ahead of Tanak, before the second attempt at ‘Nambucca’ when Ogier posted the best effort at an average speed of 109.7kph. He was 1.5s faster than Meeke who has hampered by hanging dust through the narrower portions, in spite a three-minute gap between the World Rally Car drivers.
At this point, the Briton was still in the lead, but Ogier (2nd, +2.4s) was hard on his heels and the gaps between the top four (Meeke, Ogier, Latvala, Mikkelsen) were less than three seconds each. Paddon rounded out the top five, less than 20s adrift.
That was how things stood at the regroup in Bowraville prior to the day’s final stage (Valla, 7.94km) which was run after sunset with a gap of five minutes between each car. This meant there was only one car on the stage at a time, but lingering dust was still a problem.
Sébastien Ogier improved on his daylight performance by two seconds. “I thought there would be more grip and I didn’t find a good rhythm,” reported the two-time world champion who still emerged in the overnight lead, 0.3s clear of Meeke who refused to comment at the Stop Control. Like Mikkelsen, Neuville, Paddon, Tanak and Sordo, he suffered from the increasing dust, while Elfyn Evans survived a big sixth-gear scare.
The WRC2 order is still topped by Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford Fiesta RRC/Michelin) who found himself with two-wheel drive only on SS9. Yuri Protasov (2nd, Ford), who nearly hit a cow on the same test, has closed the gap to 14.2s. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (Ford) went off on SS11 and Scott Pedder ‘retired’ for the second time.
Source: Best-of-Rally-Live