WRC – Sébastien Ogier widens the gap in Argentina after SS5

Sébastien Ogier raised the tone for the last two Argentinian specials this Thursday. The leader of the Drivers' classification took the scratch time during SS4 and 5, allowing him to put a little more space between him and his two closest pursuers, Sébastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen. Just like during the first visit this morning, the Gapençais was most comfortable over the 27,09 km which separate Santa Catalina and La Pampa during SS4. A special which will have been marked by the bad luck of Mads Ostberg: the Norwegian from Qatar M-Sport WRT broke his steering arm on his Ford Fiesta and was unable to reach the finish.

51,88 km long, the SS5 proved to be more indecisive. In difficult conditions, with rain and fog which once again disrupted the proceedings, Sébastien Ogier still managed to do well. But the driver of the Volkswagen Polo R WRC had to struggle in the last kilometers of the round with a puncture. “We had soft tires, on this loop it was the right choice, I’m happy”, he will explain afterwards. As for the puncture: “We just crossed a ford”. Finishing 2??1 ahead of Mikko Hirvonen and 3??8 Sébastien Loeb, the Gapençais signed his fourth scratch here in five special stages. Faster this morning during the first pass between Ascochinga and Agua de Oro, the two DS1 WRC drivers paid for a poor choice of tires by choosing hard compounds, compared to soft ones for Ogier. “We didn’t make the right choice of rubber, we made a mistake”, will concede the nine-time Alsatian world champion. Note also that this time it was Michal Kosciuszko on his Mini John Cooper WRC who encountered a problem preventing him from reaching the finish of the special.

In the general classification, Sébastien Ogier widens the gap between him and Sébastien Loeb, 16??3 separating them. Mikko Hirvonen is a breath away from the nine-time world champion, 18??1 behind the leader. Jari-Matti Latvala is already significantly behind, 40??7 behind his teammate. THE rally of Argentina will continue this Friday at 13:33 p.m. with the SS6 between Santa Rosa and Villa del Dique, it will again be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.