SS16 – Slippery conditions test drivers

The opening stage of the final day, the 22.47km Vieira do Minho, pushed drivers to their limits after a night of rain soaked the stage. The added factor of low sun also gave the drivers another challenge to work against.

Despite the difficult conditions, Volkswagen Motorsport II’s Andreas Mikkelsen was on a blistering charge. After setting an impressive pace yesterday, he continued by finishing the demanding stage in 14:29.6s.

Despite his best efforts, Sebastien Ogier finished 8.8s off Mikkelsen’s pace, completing the stage with a puncture on his front-right wheel, clearly making the Frenchman somewhat irate.

Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team’s Kriss Meek was third-fastest over the stage, with a time 14:39.5, which was 9.9s off the pace of Mikkelsen. Meeke still leads the rally overall though, with an impressive, albeit decreased lead of 38.5s over Mikkelsen who is now in second overall.

WRC2 saw a change of pace for some drivers. Teemu Suninen came seemingly out of nowhere to take the WRC2 stage win in his Skoda Fabia R5 with a time of 15:05.1s. Scott Pedder was second-fastest over the stage with a time 3.5s off that of Suninen. He also moves into third overall in WRC2. M-Sport World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans returned to form after yesterday’s roll, completing the stage third-fastest, just 8.3s behind Suninen.