Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia applied the pressure on the third day of LOTOS 71st Rally Poland. The French duo completed 20 of the 24 timed special stages with an overall advantage of 1min 01.8sec in the first of three Volkswagen Polo R WRCs classified in the top six.
Andreas Mikkelsen pushed as hard as he dared over the early stages on Saturday, but it was a bridge too far for the Norwegian to stop the defending World Champion pulling away. After losing further time with brake issues on the penultimate stage, Mikkelsen’s consolation was a vice-like grip on second position in his Polo.
“I am sure that the others will push a little tomorrow, so all I can do now is make no mistakes and go for the finish,” said championship leader Ogier. “The weather could be bad tonight and that may make it tricky in the morning.”
There was a fascinating tussle for the final podium slot between the Hyundai drivers, Juha Hanninen and Thierry Neuville, and Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen, once Norwegian Mads Østberg had rolled his Citroën DS3 WRC out of contention.. Neuville held the upper hand over the closing stages and reached the overnight halt 10.7sec in front of fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen.
Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a cruel suspension breakage on the first loop and faced an afternoon fight back through the field to reach the overnight halt in sixth position, a mere 0,4sec behind Hänninen.
Kiwi Haydon Paddon was seventh and Kris Meeke put a time-consuming puncture to the back of his mind and tried to chase down eighth-placed Norwegian Henning Solberg. Czech Martin Prokop rounded off the top 10.
Talented Estonian Ott Tanak increased his WRC 2 lead over Finland’s Jari Ketomaa throughout the day and the 11th–placed driver headed his fellow DMACK rival by 1min 29.1sec. Martin Kangur was running in a distant third place before he shed a wheel in SS16 and handed his position to Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
French driver Stéphane Lebebvre extended his JWRC category in a Citroën DS3 R3T. Romania’s Simone Tempestini stopped in the 12th stage and Ulsterman Alastair Fisher took up the fight in second position.
Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia applied the pressure on the third day of LOTOS 71st Rally Poland. The French duo completed 20 of the 24 timed special stages with an overall advantage of 1min 01.8sec in the first of three Volkswagen Polo R WRCs classified in the top six.
Andreas Mikkelsen pushed as hard as he dared over the early stages on Saturday, but it was a bridge too far for the Norwegian to stop the defending World Champion pulling away. After losing further time with brake issues on the penultimate stage, Mikkelsen’s consolation was a vice-like grip on second position in his Polo.
“I am sure that the others will push a little tomorrow, so all I can do now is make no mistakes and go for the finish,” said championship leader Ogier. “The weather could be bad tonight and that may make it tricky in the morning.”
There was a fascinating tussle for the final podium slot between the Hyundai drivers, Juha Hanninen and Thierry Neuville, and Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen, once Norwegian Mads Østberg had rolled his Citroën DS3 WRC out of contention.. Neuville held the upper hand over the closing stages and reached the overnight halt 10.7sec in front of fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen.
Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a cruel suspension breakage on the first loop and faced an afternoon fight back through the field to reach the overnight halt in sixth position, a mere 0,4sec behind Hänninen.
Kiwi Haydon Paddon was seventh and Kris Meeke put a time-consuming puncture to the back of his mind and tried to chase down eighth-placed Norwegian Henning Solberg. Czech Martin Prokop rounded off the top 10.
Talented Estonian Ott Tanak increased his WRC 2 lead over Finland’s Jari Ketomaa throughout the day and the 11th–placed driver headed his fellow DMACK rival by 1min 29.1sec. Martin Kangur was running in a distant third place before he shed a wheel in SS16 and handed his position to Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
French driver Stéphane Lebebvre extended his JWRC category in a Citroën DS3 R3T. Romania’s Simone Tempestini stopped in the 12th stage and Ulsterman Alastair Fisher took up the fight in second position.