Lappi resists Ogier in Türkiye, Tänak gives up

Esapekka Lappi remains leader in Turkey by resisting his Citroën teammate Sébastien Ogier. The morning saw the exit of Thierry Neuville and especially the abandonment of Ott Tänak.

Published on 14/09/2019 à 11:06

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Lappi resists Ogier in Türkiye, Tänak gives up

The face of the World Rally Championship standings could well change tomorrow evening at the end of the Rally from Türkiye. The morning of this Saturday indeed caused a large loss of time for Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), et surtout l’abandon d’Ott Tänak (Toyota).

Having made a mistake in the dust in SS8, propelled off-course by a rock, Neuville, 3rd this morning, gave up more than 4′ on the race lead and plunged in the ranking to 8th position. Worse for Ott Tänak, since it was obviously an electrical problem (possibly with the electronic unit according to Toyota), which prevented the championship leader from going further than the connection between the ES8 and ES9.

Two setbacks which offer an unexpected possibility to Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) to get closer in the general classification. The Frenchman is currently in second place in the general classification of the Rally of Turkey, 10″ behind his teammate Esapekka Lappi.

Author of a daring choice of tires (two medium compounds), Ogier reduced the gap to 1″ after the long 8 km SS33, before seeing Lappi resist in the best way and regain the same margin as at the start of the day: 10″.

Mais le duo Citroën reste aux commandes de l’épreuve avec une large avance sur la concurrence, puisqu’Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) pointe à 1’08″1. Le Norvégien a pris l’avantage dans la matinée sur Teemu Suninen (M-Sport Ford) pour le podium provisoire, 12″6 séparant désormais les deux pilotes.

Dani Sordo (Hyundai) follows at 2'10″9 from Lappi, and now precedes Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) who took advantage of a spin from Kris Meeke in SS10 to overtake the Briton from Toyota for gaining 6th place.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Pontus Tidemand (M-Sport Ford) complete the rankings WRC. In WRC 2 Pro, Jan Kopecky (Skoda Fabia R5 Evo) remains 1'10" ahead of Gus Greensmith (Ford Fiesta R5).