Volkswagen Motorsport’s Daniel Ogier was back on pace for the first pass of the final day’s longest stage, Almodovar, which covers 52.3km. Meanwhile, team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was still plagued by earlier problems.
Ogier had issues on the first stage and lost time. Before starting SS13 some checks were made on the car which highlighted the clutch to be the main issue. After cooling down the car left the stage with full four-wheel-drive. Ogier finished the stage second fastest with a time of 33.22m.
Unfortunately Jari-Matti Latvala wasn’t so fortunate. His mechanical issues remained, with a suspected failure of the front differential to blame. The Polo WRC was forced to complete the mammoth stage with only rear wheel drive. He finished SS13 in 13th position, but he has managed to hold onto third overall.
Mads Ostberg once again pushed hard, proving his potential to win this afternoon’s Power Stage. He took first position on SS13 with a time of 33:05.2s in his Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team Fiesta RS WRC.
Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team driver, Mikko Hirvonen finished the stage in third position, maintaining his focus on saving tyres rather than pushing for position.
Car 2, Hirvonen/Lehtinen
“I’m keeping a steady pace now, so he’s (Ogier) going to come. I needed to save the tyres today. It’s going to be hard.”
Car 3. Sordo/del Barrio
“It was good, I’m happy, I’m not pushing like I was. The feel with the car is okay, I feel confident again. We’re still cleaning the road, so we just want to get good points for Argentina.”
Car 4, Ostberg/Andersson
“It’s still very slippery with a lot of loose gravel, but most of the stage is okay. It’s changing a lot from place to place. It’s a very difficult stage. We just want to push today to see what we can do. We try to push now all the way to see how the tyres hold on to see what the tyres do, if they overheat. We have some knowledge now for this afternoon.”
Car 5, Novikov/Minor
“I tried to push a bit at the start of the stage, but then I took it a bit more easy. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t think there’s much chance for me against Latvala.”
Car 6, Al-Attyah/Bernacchini
“We controlled that stage because it’s a long stage, I think we did a good job. We’ve finished the first two stages so we know what we need to do on the next two laps. We tried to push in some places, in others we tried to save the limits of the tyres.”
Car 7, Latvala/Anttila
“I would be pleased if we’re still in third. We can get to service and fix the car now. It takes a lot of driving, that stage, I can tell you.”
Car 8, Ogier/Ingrassia
“It’s okay, but I’ve been very careful with this one. I was safe with the clutch and the torque I put on it. I just have to do my job.”
Car 9, Mikkelsen/Markkula
“No mistakes, very tricky this stage. A lot of crests, I have too much info in my pace-notes. Too much happens too fast. We don’t need to change the whole system, but we need to do something.”
Car 10, Al Qassimi/Martin
“It was good, I was worried that I would be really tired, but it was fine. It’s difficult to keep concentration, you need to focus more. I didn’t think of the position as much as I thought about getting into myself and getting the feeling for it.”
Car 11, Neuville/Guilsoul
“It was a very difficult stage, after 20k the brakes on the front weren’t working any more so I had to push very hard. I ended up braking on the hand-brake.”
Car 12, Kosciuszko/Szczepaniak
“We were sliding all over the road, I was really unhappy to control the slides. It was really difficult to control the car, after a few kilometers it was like driving on ice. We’re on the soft compound, there’s nothing we can do.”
Car 15, Kuipers/Buysmans
“It was good fun, we had some problems with the gearbox half way. It was a tricky stage, quite fast. This afternoon we will see. The ‘box is shifting hard sometimes, but it seems okay. Don’t know what it was.”
Car 21, Prokop/Ernst
“It was okay, no problem at all so maybe I could push a bit more. I was scared of the tyres so I didn’t want to go too hard. I thought that the short stage was more difficult than this one, this was just long.”
Car 31, Lappi/Ferm
“We are climbing up because everyone is retiring, but we’re feeling good. There’s still two stages to go, 70km, so it’s a big job.”
Car 32, Wiegand/Christian
“I was one time braking too late. Then the gearbox was locking, I tried to get gears but it was not possible. I tried five, six, seven times then it worked. It was a real shame. I have no idea what’s going on with the gearbox.”
Car 51, Chardonnet/De La Haye
“We were stuck in the dust of the car ahead for 10k.”
Car 59, Bouffier/Panseri
“Today is working well. It was a bit difficult but I’m not complaining because I’m leading. It was a beautiful stage over so many kilometers. I’m happy to be here, it’s going very well.”
Car 74, Kubica/Baran
“The gearbox is working well. This stage has been very difficult for us. We lost some time when I slid on a corner so I lost some confidence.”
Car 75, Evans/Barrit
“It’s been going okay, been getting more and more confident with the car, I thought the car was sliding at the end so maybe the tyres are gone. We’re learning for the future though. For this rally we’re happy where we are. It’s difficult and tricky enough as we are.”
Car 78, Bresolin/Pollet
“We had a puncture on the front-left.”
Car 79, Barrable/Loudon
“About 2.5km into the stage there was a tight turn by a bridge. He (Wiegand) seemed to have run a little bit wide. I don’t know if he got going again. That’s a really painful stage, I’ll say that. It’s been a fair introduction to the WRC. We came with a plan and we stuck to the plan, it’s been good.”
Car 83, Magalhães/Magalhães
“This stage was not very good for us. We were 30km behind the other driver, in the dust. We asked the organisers for one more minute but we weren’t allowed it.”
Car 85, Barbosa/Silva
“There is a lot of dust. We covered 10k in the dust of the car in front. That slowed us a little. The goal is to reach the end.”