WRC – Ogier resists the chaos of Rally Poland

Sébastien Ogier has forced the pace in the five stages contested so far in the third stage of the Rally from Poland. From nine tenths ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen, the gap between the two Volkswagen drivers increased to 19 seconds even if the Norwegian did his best to stay in contact. The morning would have been idyllic for the Wolfsburg manufacturer if Jari-Matti Latvala had not suffered a broken suspension following hitting a stone in the Goldap special (SS14, 35,17km long, the longest special of the test). The Finn who had climbed to third position fell to seventh place when joining service with a shock absorber having passed through the hood!

Jari-Matti Latvala climbed onto the provisional podium by taking advantage of the misfortunes of Mads Ostberg who also hit a stone and rolled over on the same course. The Citroën driver came out in the same place as Elfyn Evans who was in tenth place. His teammate Kris Meeke was able to reach the finish but the Northern Irishman lost two minutes following a puncture while he was in fifth place.

These multiple incidents thus enabled the pilots Hyundai to regain color since Juho Hänninen finds himself on the provisional podium, despite a delay of almost two minutes at the head of the race, while Thierry Neuville made a good comeback to fourth position just ahead of the Ford of Mikko Hirvonen who has half a minute ahead of that of Robert Kubica. Behind Jari-Matti Latvala, Hayden Paddon has left Henning Solberg behind while Martin Prokop provisionally completes the top ten with 11 seconds ahead of Kris Meeke.

In WRC2, Ott Tänak retains the lead with one minute ahead of Jari Ketomaa, while Martin Kangur still completes the provisional podium ahead of Yazeed Al Rajhi and Valeriy Gorban. On the other hand, Sébastien Chardonnet had to throw in the towel following an accident.

The second passage of the specials will be contested from 15:50 p.m. and will be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr. Videos of the event can be viewed on this link.