MOTORSPORT NEWS Rally

Rally Turkey: SATURDAY IN TURKEY:OGIER LEADS BY 0.2SEC

Andries Van der WaltComments Off on Rally Turkey: SATURDAY IN TURKEY:OGIER LEADS BY 0.2SEC
SÉBASTIEN OGIER HELD A SLENDER 0.2SEC LEAD OVER CITROËN RACING TEAM-MATE ESAPEKKA LAPPI AT RALLY TURKEY ON SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER A DISASTROUS DAY FOR WRC TITLE RIVALS OTT TÄNAK AND THIERRY NEUVILLE.

Ogier and Lappi each won two of the six rocky speed tests near Marmaris in temperatures nearing 35°C. The Frenchman reversed the opening leg order by relegating his Citroën C3 colleague in the penultimate special stage when Lappi stalled his engine in a hairpin.

It was a miserable day for FIA World Rally Championship leader Tänak, who retired on the liaison section to the second stage when his Toyota Yaris’ engine control unit failed.

The day proved little better for Neuville, second in the championship standings and third overnight. He went off the road in a dusty section of the opening stage and more than four minutes ticked by before his Hyundai i20 was moving again. He ended eighth.

Ogier, trailing Lappi by almost 18sec, gambled this morning on a mixed package of two hard and two medium compound Michelin tyres. His bet paid dividends as he stormed through the opening 33.00km test 16.7sec quicker than Lappi.

The Frenchman managed his tyres superbly through the remaining two morning stages, before repeating his charge when the long test was driven again this afternoon, when tyre wear was extreme. He was in the perfect position to capitalise when Lappi made a slight error.

“It was always a bit of a risk to be aggressive with the tyre choice but I was confident it would work. It’s been a challenging afternoon because the roads were very abrasive and I finished the loop with slick tyres on the car. Our rivals had trouble, now we need to finish the job tomorrow,” said Ogier.

Ott Tänak was forced to retire on the liaison section after SS8 when the ECU on
his Yaris failed.

Andreas Mikkelsen relegated Teemu Suninen to fourth but Suninen fought hard and brought his battle-scarred Ford Fiesta to the end of the leg only 9.8sec adrift of the Norwegian’s i20.

Dani Sordo was a lonely fifth in his i20, almost a minute adrift of Suninen and nearly 50sec clear of Jari-Matti Latvala’s Yaris.

Latvala moved ahead of team-mate Kris Meeke when the Briton spun this morning. Meeke moved back ahead in the penultimate stage, only to slide off the road in the final test on badly worn tyres and end 15.1sec behind the Finn.

Behind Neuville, Pontus Tidemand and WRC 2 leader Kajetan Kajetanowicz completed the leaderboard.

Sunday’s pocket-sized finale contains 38.62km spanning four tests. Two runs through the 7.05km Marmaris bookend the leg, the second pass forming the Wolf Power Stage with bonus points to the fastest five drivers.

Top overall positions end day 3:

    OVERALL
    POS CAR NO DRIVER CO-DRIVER TEAM ELIGIBILITY GROUP CLASS TIME DIFF PREV DIFF 1ST
    1. 1 FRAS. OGIER FRAJ. INGRASSIA CITROEN TOTAL WRT M RC1 3:20:12.0
    2. 4 FINE. LAPPI FINJ. FERM CITROEN TOTAL WRT M RC1 3:20:12.2 +0.2 +0.2
    3. 89 NORA. MIKKELSEN NORA. JAEGER HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM M RC1 3:21:29.1 +1:16.9 +1:17.1
    4. 3 FINT. SUNINEN FINJ. LEHTINEN M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM M RC1 3:21:38.9 +9.8 +1:26.9
    5. 6 ESPD. SORDO ESPC. DEL BARRIO HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM M RC1 3:22:36.7 +57.8 +2:24.7
    6. 10 FINJ. LATVALA FINM. ANTTILA TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT M RC1 3:23:26.4 +49.7 +3:14.4
    7. 5 GBRK. MEEKE GBRS. MARSHALL TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT M RC1 3:23:41.5 +15.1 +3:29.5
    8. 11 BELT. NEUVILLE BELN. GILSOUL HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM M RC1 3:24:50.2 +1:08.7 +4:38.2
    9. 7 SWEP. TIDEMAND NORO. FLOENE M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM M RC1 3:27:07.8 +2:17.6 +6:55.8
    10. 41 POLK. KAJETANOWICZ POLM. SZCZEPANIAK KAJETAN KAJETANOWICZ WRC2 RC2 3:33:04.5 +5:56.7 +12:52.5
    11. 22 GBRG. GREENSMITH GBRE. EDMONDSON M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM WRC2PRO RC2 3:34:02.1 +57.6 +13:50.1
    12. 23 CZEJ. KOPECKY CZEP. DRESLER SKODA MOTORSPORT WRC2PRO RC2 3:35:02.8 +1:00.7 +14:50.8
    13. 44 BOLM. BULACIA ARGF. CRETU MARCO BULACIA WILKINSON WRC2 RC2 3:36:11.2 +1:08.4 +15:59.2
    14. 42 ITAF. ANDOLFI ITAE. INGLESI FABIO ANDOLFI WRC2 RC2 3:42:29.9 +6:18.7 +22:17.9
    15. 43 NORH. SOLBERG AUTI. MINOR HENNING SOLBERG WRC2 RC2 3:49:51.7 +7:21.8 +29:39.7
    16. 48 TURB. CUKUROVA TURV. BOSTANCI BURAK CUKUROVA WRC2 RC2 3:56:39.6 +6:47.9 +36:27.6
    17. 8 ESTO. TÄNAK ESTM. JÄRVEOJA TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT M RC1 3:56:52.5 +12.9 +36:40.5
    18. 51 INDG. GILL AUSG. MACNEALL GAURAV GILL WRC2 RC2 4:00:59.6 +4:07.1 +40:47.6
    19. 45 BRAP. NOBRE BRAG. MORALES PAULO NOBRE WRC2 RC2 4:01:21.6 +22.0 +41:09.6
    20. 21 FINK. ROVANPERÄ FINJ. HALTTUNEN SKODA MOTORSPORT WRC2PRO RC2 4:02:36.3 +1:14.7 +4