SS11 – Tyre choice becomes key and a milestone for Volkswagen Motorsport

The afternoon’s opening stage featured less drama than those of the morning, with drivers managing to make a clean pass of the increasingly tricky Santa Clara stage. Volkswagen Motorsport’s Sebastien Ogier claimed the win, while Mikko Hirvonen took second place. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville took the third fastest pass of the stage. 

Ogier also covered an impressive milestone in his Polo R WRC, bringing it over the line as a stage winner for the 200th time as a world rally car. 

M-Sport World Rally Team’s Hirvonen didn’t finish the stage on quite the same high. Having subjected his tyres to huge amounts of wear, Mikko stated that he would just have to push on the next stage and see how long the tyres last. 

In WRC2 Jari Ketomaa’s Fiesta R5 suffered a power steering failure, forcing the car to stop so it could be restarted, resetting the power steering in the process. A costly mistake which closed the gap between second position to a mere 2.2 seconds.