Argentina: Petter Solberg maintains the advantage

The gamble of starting first on the track did not pay off for Sébastien Loeb who was waiting for rain in the Mexican stages. The weather remained dry when the Citroën driver set off on the first special. Although the Alsatian was in a good rhythm and did not seem to suffer from his position on the road, he still fell to fourth place in the standings after suffering three spins. “I still have two spins in the last special. The car oversteers a lot, it?s difficult to keep it on the road?, commented the eight-time world champion who is 35 seconds behind the leader of the race.

Conversely, Petter Solberg made no mistake and protected his place as leader of the event despite a slight scare with 20 seconds ahead of Mikko Hirvonen (Citroën), the leader?s closest rival. “I hit a ditch and almost went out”, explained the Norwegian after the 52km of the second special. “I had to adopt a careful pace at the end. My lead is not that big in an event of this size. »

Dani Sordo does a good job with the Fiesta RS WRC since he occupies third position with only 4?5 behind the Finn and ten seconds ahead of the world champion's DS3 WRC. “The car is pleasant to drive”, underlined the replacement of Jari-Matti Latvala who discovers a new mount. The Spaniard is closely followed by the Belgian Thierry Neuville which is only 3??2 behind after these first three covered special stages.

Mads Ostberg (Ford) fell back to sixth position at the end of the long Ascochinga / Agua de Oro special. The Norwegian complained about his grades without explaining his delay over Dani Sordo. Ott Tänak (Ford) lost all hope of doing well by giving in almost 18 minutes after having a puncture in the previous special and repairing a suspension. Evgeny Novikov (Ford) retired early in SS3 after suffering damage in the previous stage. In the duel of the Volkswagen drivers, Sébastien Ogier takes the advantage for three tenths ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen. The Frenchman currently occupies a satisfactory seventh place.

The crews will leave at 17:46 p.m. to complete the second pass of the special stages contested this morning. The Cosquin / Villa Allende course will be contested from 22:23 p.m.