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The VW drivers, as they say, do not hang about, and Latvala and Ogier are setting the pace on the opening day of Rally Finland 2014…both quicker than on the first run of the Lankamaa stage and setting equal fastest time…11 minutes 11.2 seconds.
Drier conditions, but some big ruts…
Jarkko Nikara off on the stage and unable to continue, crew OK, says M-Sport… Ott Tänak stopped and restarted…he completed but lost over 4 minutes on the stage So Latvala and Ogier joint fastest, Latvala leads, Ogier +5.3, Meeke +8.8, Hänninen +24.0, Hirvonen +24.4, Mikkelsen +25.8, Østberg +29.7, Neuville +37.3, Kubica +48.4, Paddon +1:00.7, Prokop +1:04.5, Solberg +1:09.1, Evans +1:11.5, Breen +1:55.8… WRC2 after SS3 Ketomaa leads, Kruuda +32.5, Brynildsen +35.4, Chardonnet +50.8, Al-Rajhi +1:57.6, Tänak +3.57.7, Alonso +4:13.5 Latvala 11:11.3: I started to catch back at the end…I was struggling with the car at the beginning…understeering….” Ogier 11:11.2: “More slippery, bit more mud… deep rut [final corner] I had a impact at the front and had to back off” Meeke 11:12.4: “medium-sized ruts, difficult to control, step by step… I’m happy” Hänninen 11:27.4: “lost a lot of time…quite rough, these ruts already. We lost a few times from these ruts after that not fully confident” Hirvonen 11:20.7: “I was hoping to be really close to the Volkswagens, but they are really fast” Mikkelsen 11:18.2: “I tried to increase the pace…slippery at the beginning…back end of the car was all over the place. Guys at the front are doing a very good job…” Østberg 11:22.0: Not a good day, struggling a lot to drive with the car like this…[will change setup tonight] Neuville 11:22.8: “Much better but I am bottoming a lot…I had some really hard points with the steering, sometimes I could not hold the steering” Kubica 11:30.8: “Lots of ruts, wasn’t easy…but we are happy” Paddon 11:29.3: “Not a bad stage for us, certainly a lot easier when there’s no rain” Prokop 11:33.8: “Some smoke from the rear brakes…really rough stage…big stone in the line…I had to go out of the line…big moment” Solberg with front left puncture 11:55.9: “9km in…there was a stone in the road…and pah!” Evans 11:38.5: “I was struggling with confidence…the car jumped out of the ruts a couple of times…still work to do” Breen with front left slow puncture 11:56.2: “It happened really early on the stage…it was really strange, not a full puncture” Source: irallylive.com
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