|
Stage nine has been less eventful than the previous – no fires or rolls on this one. But the excitement was as high as ever, with Meeke and Mikkelsen fighting it out for that overall second place.
 In the end, it was Meeke who set the fastest time on this stage, a good 1.7 seconds ahead of Mikkelsen. He rightfully earned his second place, just two tenths ahead of the young VW driver. Mikkelsen pushed hard all the way through this stage, challenging Ogier for the fastest split times, and he will be determined to fight on in SS10. “That was really slippery, really tricky.” said Mikkelsen. “Clean stage for us. Couple of mistakes here and there.” Meeke was reported to have had a big moment in this stage, which definitely affected the time he was aiming for. “I can’t deny it, wrong pace notes.” Meeke said at the stage end. “I had a corner expecting to be fifth gear and it was fourth. We’re okay.” With Meeke and Mikkelsen’s simultaneous push, Ogier is now 10.4 seconds down on his VW teammate and stays in fourth place for now. This won’t phase the World Champion, who will be looking at the long Stage 10 with a gleam in his eyes, ready to reduce that gap to something more akin to 3-4 seconds. Sordo is setting some steady times, now 4.1 seconds behind Tänak overall. Ott is having a good rally, coming in 7.5 seconds slower than Sordo in SS9. His teammate, Elfyn Evans, has been forced to retire once more; WRC Portugal is never kind to him, and this time has been no different. This is bad news for the young Welshman, fresh off a podium finish in Argentina, who might have been hoping to tame the personal beast that is Rally de Portugal – clearly, she has other ideas. Hayden Paddon is still having a strong rally, taking the sixth fastest time through SS9 – just 0.3 down from Ostberg. “Slippery second half of the stage. Took it easy on the hard stuff.” said Paddon. He then remarked on keeping his tyres for the next long stage. “We’ve got a couple of hard tyres, so it should be okay.” Stage nine was kinder to Rally leader Latvala than the previous, with no mistakes made here. “Very slippery around 15kms, last 6kms was downhill and slippery.” remarked Latvala. “Some rocks on the road, very strange places for them to be in.” He added, lending fuel to the fire that is the possibility of spectators throwing rocks onto the stage. |
