WRC – Behind Latvala, Loeb takes over Solberg

Jari-Matti Latvala is only three stages away from victory and maintains a lead of almost 30 seconds over his pursuers after having scored another scratch in the Walters Arena special (SS16) which will serve as the Power Stage. On the other hand, the fight for second place has evolved since Sébastien Loeb took over Petter Solberg by winning in the first two courses of the last stage. The Alsatian is 2”9 ahead of the Norwegian who will seek to regain the upper hand this afternoon by modifying the settings of his Fiesta RS WRC to the assistance.

Citroën WRT is in better form, the DS3 WRCs having found the right compromise for the stages of the last day of the Welsh event which offer more grip. Mikko Hirvonen finally finds a good rhythm and comes back 23 seconds behind Mads Ostberg who defended tooth and nail this morning. The private Ford driver suffered from a mechanical problem causing a loss of power from the start of the stage but the risks taken by the Norwegian allowed him to only lose around ten seconds on the Finn.

Ott Tänak and Evgeny Novikov both made mistakes in the Port Talbot special stage (SS14). The Russian lost more time than the Estonian who now has a lead of more than 40 seconds. Thierry Neuville still completes the top eight ahead of Matthew Wilson and Martin Prokop after showing good performances this morning. Chris Atkinson fell further away from the top ten after suffering gearbox problems forcing him to use his clutch. Sébastien Ogier (Skoda) follows him by less than a minute. The fight for victory in the S-WRC turned to the advantage of Craig Breen which now has a solid lead ahead of Tom Cave's Proton Satria Neo S2000. The Ford Fiesta S2000 driver was battling for tenths with Yazeed Al-Rajhi until the Saudi received a five-minute penalty for excessive speed on a road course and dropped back to third place by a good distance of the first two pilots.

The crews only have 41,5km left to decide between them. The second passage of the Port Talbot special will be contested from 13:07 p.m. Paris time.