Wales Rally GB 2018
10h
Helped in particular by his best position on the road, Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport) took the scratch in the 20,28km of Myherin, the first special of the second stage of Wales Rally GB. The five-time WRC champion set a time of 10'46''2 to take 3 seconds from Ott Tänak (Toyota). Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) was 4 seconds behind while Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) finished 7 seconds behind. Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) was in the most difficulty with around ten seconds behind. Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) was closest to the benchmark, 2 seconds behind. Citroën drivers Craig Breen and Mads Ostberg preceded Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) who opened the road.
Ott Tänak now has a lead of 33 seconds over Thierry Neuville who retains 2nd place for a little over 2 seconds over Sébastien Ogier who gets back on the provisional podium by overtaking Esapekka Lappi and Jari-Matti Latvala, the latter losing two positions. Craig Breen remains 6th ahead of Hayden Paddon and Mads Ostberg. Andreas Mikkelsen still occupies 9th place ahead of WRC 2 leader Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda).
10h
Tänak limits his delay to 3s. The leader of Wales Rally GB managed to increase his lead to 33s over Neuville who dropped another 4s on the Toyota driver. “It will be a long day and we don't have the best position. I still rode well. »
09h
Latvala drops around ten seconds on Ogier who overtakes the two Toyotas! The Finn lost 2 positions by finding himself behind his teammate Lappi with half a second behind. “I am surprised by this bad time. I have a lot of understeer. We made changes to the support but we ran out of time. »
09h
Lappi is the furthest behind with 4″7 behind Ogier. The Toyota driver was caught by the Frenchman by 2″4.
09h
Ogier takes the provisional scratch with 2″9 ahead of Paddon and 3″5 ahead of Breen. The M-Sport driver is fighting for 2nd place against Neuville, Latvala and Lappi. “It’s still quite slippery. I think I did a good SS but the grip level is really not high. »
09h
Breen is closest to Paddon with 6 tenths behind. The Citroën driver is about ten seconds behind Ogier.
09h
Paddon: “The first part of the special was really beautiful and we rode well in the second part. It was really a very beautiful course. »
09h
Paddon is ahead of Ostberg by 1″2 and pushes the Citroën driver back to 3″2 in the general classification.
09h
Mikkelsen: “The conditions weren't too bad. There weren't too many puddles. I expected worse. »
09h
Mikkelsen set a first time of 10'50″9. The Hyundai driver is in 9th place.
09h
The strategies still vary for this first pass:
Citroën drivers Breen and Ostberg, as well as Toyota drivers Tänak and Lappi and Hyundai driver Mikkelsen took on board 5 softs.
Paddon and Evans preferred to take 5 mediums.
Neuville chose 3 soft and 2 medium.
Latvala left with 4 tenders and 1 medium.
Ogier opted for 2 soft and 3 medium.
In Tänak's opinion, the tire differences were not very visible after the first stage.
09h
Teams are expecting very muddy roads today as rain fell overnight across Wales.
09h
Here is the starting order for this stage:
Road order – 1. Mikkelsen 2. Østberg 3. Paddon 4. Breen 5. Ogier 6. Lappi 7. Latvala 8. Neuville 9. Tänak 10. Evans #WRC
— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 6th October, 2018
08h
Before departure, discover the summary of the 1st stage from Hyundai:
08h
Welcome to the live stream of the 2nd stage of Wales Rally GB!
The day should start at 9:35 a.m. and will include no less than 9 ES.
