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Today is the final day of Rally Argentina 2015, and we began the day with Kris Meeke’s rally lead having been halved yesterday, making it 38.6 seconds over a hard-charging Mads Ostberg. SS11 is the first of two runs of the classic 16.32km El Condor route – it will be run again later as the Power Stage, marking the end of the event’s competitive kilometres.
 The day’s drama began before the stage event went live – on the road section leading to the stage, third-placed Jarri-Matti Latvala was seen stopped, suffering with fuel supply issues. It sounds like he begins the stage with his Polo R running on just three cylinders. The shock news of his retirement during the stage comes as very bad news for the driver – he hasn’t had the best luck this year and it looked like things were finally changing for Jari-Matti. The stage win, meanwhile, went to Latvala’s team mate Andreas Mikkelsen. As a rally2 runner, his victory marks a clear plan to score maximum points in this afternoon’s Power Stage – it will be his best change for championship points. Ogier, having retired early in the rally, is also hoping to score maximum points this afternoon, clearing the stage third fastest. Sordo, who was forced to retire yesterday by lingering power steering issues, was second fastest. 5.7 seconds down on Mikkelsen. Mads Ostberg, currently second overall, completed the stage fifth fastest – rally leader Kris Meeke was secenth quickest, meaning his rally lead has been reduced to 27 seconds. If Meeke can put in a similar performance this afternoon it should be enough to secure the overall win, however, it was reported that Kris was aggravated at the end of the stage, refusing to answer questions and could be suffering with an issue. The retirement of Latvala puts Evans, who completed this stage ninth fastest, into a podium position. He has a buffer of over two minutes to fourth place Neuville – he should also only need a consistent pace to secure the third finishing spot. All attention will now be on the final stage of the day, the re-run of this El Condor route as the Power Stage, marking the best opportunity for the numerous rally2 competitors to score championship points. There is only a refuel stop before the stage and so any problems will have to be endured unless the crews can repair anything themselves – we await an update on Kris Meeke’s situation. |
