Argentina WRC: Neuville closes in after more Evans trouble
The lead of Elfyn Evans in Rally Argentina was hacked down to just 11.5 seconds on Saturday afternoon, as problems with his DMACK Ford allowed rivals to dramatically close in.
Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 WRC, Hyundai Motorsport
McKlein / Motorsport Images
The reigning British Rally champion's advantage peaked at just over a minute earlier on Saturday, before two damaged tyres meant the gap was reduced to 44s over Thierry Neuville by the midday service.
Evans put a second back on his lead on the first afternoon stage, but reached the finish concerned at a potential problem at the rear of his car.
That turned out to be the loss of the car's diffuser, and he lost 15.1s to second and third placed Neuville and Ott Tanak as they shared the fastest time on the long Los Gigantes stage.
The problems escalated on the day's finale, Boca del Arroyo, as after a competitive first split Evans began dropping more time with a problem at the rear of the car that he could not explain, and that led to a spin at one point.
Evans lost 18.9s to Neuville as the Hyundai driver won the stage, leaving them only 11.5s apart with three stages left on Sunday.
Tanak could not match Neuville's searing pace on that stage and ended the day 15.3s off second place and 26.8s from leader Evans.
However he did outpace M-Sport teammate Sebastien Ogier throughout the afternoon, the duo now 23.1s apart.
Mads Ostberg had started the afternoon ahead of both M-Sport drivers in his privately-entered Ford, but lost out to Tanak when he was overly cautious through the Tanti watersplash that had ripped his diffuser off in the morning.
Worse followed on Los Gigantes when Ostberg clouted a rock near the stage end and had to retire with broken suspension.
Jari-Matti Latvala completes the top five, steadily losing touch with the Fords ahead through the loop.
Hayden Paddon is a distant sixth, further delayed in the afternoon by a penalty for starting SS14 late when he tried to fix a broken rollbar. His efforts were in vain, but he still managed third-fastest times on both the following stages.
Juho Hanninen had nearly caught Lorenzo Bertelli when his Toyota ran into further mechnical trouble and was left limping through the final two stages.
But he still moved up to seventh at the Italian's expense as Bertelli then had to stop to change a puncture on the last stage.
Dani Sordo's recovery drive following his Friday morning damage has now brought him up to ninth ahead of WRC2 leader Pontus Tidemand.
Kris Meeke had returned under Rally2 after crashing on Day 1, but rolled again early on Los Gigantes and retired for the second time in as many days.
Standings after SS12:
Cla | Driver/Codriver | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Elfyn Evans Daniel Barritt |
Ford Fiesta WRC '17 | 2h53m45.7s |
2 | Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | 11.5s | |
3 | Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja |
Ford Fiesta WRC '17 | 26.8s |
4 | Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia |
Ford Fiesta WRC '17 | 49.9s |
5 | Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila |
Toyota Yaris WRC | 1m24.6s |
6 |
Hayden Paddon John Kennard |
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | 4m26.7s |
7 | Toyota Yaris WRC | 9m34.3s | |
8 | Lorenzo Bertelli Simone Scattolin |
Ford Fiesta WRC '17 | 12m10.0s |
9 |
Dani Sordo Marc Marti |
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | 13m26.8s |
10 |
Pontus Tidemand Jonas Andersson |
Skoda Fabia R5 | 13m57.5s |
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