WRC – Loeb and Ogier manage, Novikov resists

Sébastien Loeb et Sébastien Ogier are no longer fighting for the head of the Rally from Argentina. The Citroën driver was even able to increase his lead over his compatriot who wants to secure the points for second place and possibly try to take bonus points in the Power Stage (the second pass of El Condor, the last special of the event). The battle that drives this last stage is for the last step of the podium between Evgeny Novikov and Jari-Matti Latvala. The Qatar WRT driver set a superb time in SS11 at Mina Clavero? Giulio Cesare as he suffered a problem with the settings of his Fiesta RS WRC stuck in road mode. If the Russian was able to resolve his problem in the following special, his rival Jari-Matti Latvala came back to 3”4 from the provisional podium by signing the two scratches of the morning.

Despite worrying smoke escaping from his Fiesta RS WRC, Thierry Neuville effectively protects his fifth place ahead of Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Ostberg. Martin Prokop is still in eighth position, but the Czech is now closely followed by Dani Sordo, four seconds behind his Fiesta RS WRC. The Spaniard took the lead from Andreas Mikkelsen in the final stage, but the Volkswagen driver remained four seconds behind the DS3 WRC. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari still dominates WRC2 with almost 12 minutes ahead of Nicholas Fuchs.

The second pass of the special stages of the last stage will be carried out from 16:39 p.m.