Toyotas take over in Australia

The Toyota adopted a brisk pace in the first passage of the second stage of the Rally from Australia. Jari-Matti Latvala took the lead of the race at midday, preceding his teammate by a handful of seconds Ott Tänak. The Estonian can nevertheless count on the team play of the Finn in his fight for the title.

Mads Ostberg (Citroën) failed to resist the return of the Yaris WRC and finds himself in 3rd position with only 4 seconds ahead of Hayden Paddon (Hyundai). Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) completes the Top 5 by marking the break in the peloton with around twenty seconds behind the New Zealander.

Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) is in 6th place and hopes to see the ranking stabilize since he would be assured of the title before the Power Stage even if Ott Tänak takes the lead of the race. The Frenchman is ahead of his teammates Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen, while Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) is moving isolated in 10th position after having suffered a scare by hitting an embankment.

@thierryneuville after this moment in SS11: “Something is broken, but the car is still able to drive. »
Is it? Watch @RallyAustralia now live on https://t.co/twccZ0hRvh #WRCLive #WRC #ChampionshipBattle pic.twitter.com/ODC7Q9pTS0

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) November 16, 2018

Craig Breen (Citroën) was trying to stay in the leading group after falling to 5th place when the Irishman damaged his left rear suspension by hitting an embankment on SS11. After losing more than a minute, the Citroën driver was unable to arrive on time at the start of the super special which closed the passage, the police having stopped his mount on the link. He finally reached the special checkpoint 23 minutes late and will have to incur a significant time penalty.

The crews are now heading to service before starting the second passage of the stage which should start at 2:08 a.m. Paris time.