Ranking upset behind Evans at Wales Rally GB

Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) a maintenu et même augmenté son avance au Wales Rally GB à l’issue des deux spéciales de nuit dont la première a piégé plusieurs concurrents en raison d’un épais brouillard. Alors que le pilote Dmack avait avancé avec prudence, il a profité du temps perdu par ses adversaires directs pour porter son avance à plus de 53 secondes.

Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) took second place, benefiting from the poor performance of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Ott Tänak (M-Sport) in SS15. The Championship leader was however trapped when leaving the road, notably damaging his Ford Fiesta WRC with a puncture and a broken brake disc.

Le Français a malgré tout pu signer des performances compétitives pour conserver à l’issue de la deuxième étape une avance d’une demi-seconde sur Thierry Neuville. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) a fait partie des pilotes s’étant illustrés dans le brouillard puisqu’il est remonté à la quatrième position à quatre secondes du podium provisoire.

Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) remains in fifth place, almost six seconds behind the Finn. The Norwegian was particularly disturbed on the last course after having adjusted his headlights in anticipation of the fog which was finally absent.

The big loser of SS15 is Ott Tänak (M-Sport) who lost three places. The Estonian finds himself sixth, 2”5 behind the former Volkswagen driver.

Kris Meeke (Citroën) maintains seventh place ahead of Hayden Paddon (Hyundai). Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) took ninth place against Dani Sordo (Hyundai) who lost seconds by the dozen on the final courses. The Spaniard did not want to comment on his poor performance. Following Juho Hänninen's retirement in the super special (SS14), Toyota has announced that the Finn will not restart in Rally 2 tomorrow.

Pontus Tidemand (Skoda) remains solid leader of WRC 2, now almost two minutes ahead of Tom Cave (Ford) who sees Éric Camilli (Ford) fall back to seven seconds.

The final stage of Wales Rally GB begins at 9:34am tomorrow. As a reminder, the transition to winter time in Europe takes place tonight.