Mikkelsen now leads Paddon

Andreas Mikkelsen (Volkswagen) retained the lead Rally d’Australie au terme du premier passage de la deuxième étape. Le Norvégien précède désormais Hayden Paddon (Hyundai), auteur d’une belle attaque dans les 50km de Nambucca alors qu’il était perturbé par de la poussière dans l’habitacle, qui pointe à 13’’4 du Scandinave en devançant de trois secondes Sébastien Ogier (Volkswagen). The four-time world champion limited his delay by being the only one to rely on soft tires for the first pass.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) slipped to fourth place after struggling with its i20 WRC with which he is 23 seconds behind the Frenchman. Mads Ostberg (Ford) completes the top five, having come within eight seconds of the Belgian. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) and Éric Camilli (Ford) also remain in the race, the Spaniard trailing the Norwegian by 13 seconds while the Frenchman is five seconds behind the Hispanic driver.

Esapekka Lappi (Skoda Fabia R5) maintains a good lead in WRC 2 with the title in his sights. The Finn is in tenth place behind Ott Tänak (Ford) and Lorenzo Bertelli (Ford).