New Zealand – SS6: Ogier holds on

The crews once again faced very perilous conditions for the penultimate special of the day with the return of rain and tire management on this long 31,48 km special.

Kalle Rovanperä took advantage of these worsening conditions to regain 5″6 from Ott Tänak and stay in contact with his main opponent in the championship. With Neuville conceding in turn 8″7, then Evans 10″5, it became obvious that the track was getting worse as the cars passed.

At the finish, everyone reported a heavy downpour in the middle of the special like Ott Tänak: “It's starting to rain a lot now and with the mud forming it's undriveable”. Elfyn Evans agreed: “Several times I couldn’t see anything. The conditions are very bad with a lot of aquaplaning.”

With only 1″5 ahead of Evans at the start of the special, it seemed difficult even to imagine Sébastien Ogier retain his first place in the general classification, especially since he lost the upper plane of his rear wing in contact with tree branches!

And yet, the Frenchman put out another great performance to increase his lead to 5″6 by setting the third fastest time in the special behind Rovanperä and Tänak.

There is only one special stage left before ending this second day of racing and returning to the service park. Departure from SS7 at 06:03 a.m. French time.

SS6 ranking:

General classification after SS6: