WRC – Ogier falls against Loeb and Hirvonen in Argentina

The crews benefited from better conditions than the day before even if showers fell during the night left areas soggy and muddy in places. This time, the drivers opted en masse for soft tires, with the crews wearing Michelin all starting with five compounds. Sébastien Ogier remained the fastest in Santa Rosa? Villa del Dique (SS6) by slightly increasing his lead over his direct pursuers, namely Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen. But then the Volkswagen driver was trapped on a slow and muddy corner on the Amboy course? Yacanto, losing more than 40 seconds on the Citroën drivers who did not expect so much to take the lead of the race. “We understeered on a long, mud-filled corner and went off the road. You had to use the handbrake to get out of it and it didn't work." commented the Championship leader before leaving for service to repair his Polo R WRC damaged.

Sébastien Loeb therefore finds himself at the head of the Rally from Argentina with 8”9 ahead of his teammate Mikko Hirvonen, who managed to keep up with the pace of the French. Sébastien Ogier now finds himself in third position with 17”4 behind the Finn and 26”3 over his compatriot. The Finn from VW Jari-Matti Latvala still occupies 4th place with 18 seconds behind his Gapence teammate, the second driver from the Wolfsburg manufacturer having been in difficulty with his settings considered too soft by the latter. Evgeny Novikov again completes the top five ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville. After the Norwegian received a ten-second penalty, the gap remains just 7 seconds between the Norwegian's Polo R WRC and the Belgian's Ford Fiesta RS WRC. Martin Prokop is 8th ahead of Mads Ostberg. Dani Sordo completes the top ten at the end of a morning where the Citroën driver again lost a lot of time. The Spaniard encountered mechanical problems when going through a ford on SS4.

Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari leads WRC2 in his Ford Fiesta RRC, already almost 9 minutes ahead of Nicolas Fuchs' Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. Armin Kremer's Subaru Impreza WRX STI is on the last step of the provisional podium.

The second passage of the specials of the third day will be followed from 15 p.m. (20 p.m. Paris time) on AUTOhebdo.fr.