Australia: Neuville falls in the rankings, Ostberg keeps the lead

This is perhaps the outcome of the 2018 season which was decided this afternoon in Australia. As he increased his lead over Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) dans le second passage de la première étape, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) a été victime d’une crevaison à l’arrière-gauche dans l’ES6 et a perdu environ une minute dans l’incident.

SS6: wheel damage for @thierryneuville #wrc #wrclive @RallyAustralia pic.twitter.com/LRhW4EUc14

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) November 16, 2018

While the Belgian fell to 10th place, his bad luck allowed M-Sport to pass the team instructions by moving Teemu Suninen and Elfyn Evans behind Sébastien Ogier who gained 3 places and found himself 7th.

Mads Ostberg (Citroën) retains the lead Rally d’Australie avec désormais plus de 6 secondes d’avance sur Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) qui est devenu le principal rival du Norvégien. Les autres Yaris WRC ont été plus en difficulté, Ott Tänak slipping to 5th place ahead of teammate Esapekka Lappi. The Japanese manufacturer's two drivers were victims of a ford in SS5, the Estonian tearing off his front bumper while the Finn suffered engine cuts.

#RallyAustralia SS5 Tänak: “The front was in the watersplash and took all the front away I guess. We had damage on the previous one, it is running like a dog. » pic.twitter.com/vaXlHA98Tc

— Valmar Viisel (@paddocknews) November 16, 2018

These incidents allowed Craig Breen placing the second Citroën on the provisional podium one second behind the first Yaris WRC. The Irishman has a lead of 2 seconds over Hayden Paddon (Hyundai).

The first stage of the Rally Australia will end with two passages of the 1,27km Destination NSW super special which should be contested from 6:37 a.m. Paris time.