Rally of Catalonia 2018
15h
The crews are preparing to compete in the second passage of El Montmell, 24,4km long. Latvala was the fastest there in the first pass in 12'58"4.
15h
Rovanperä retains the lead in WRC 2 with a 7s lead over Kopecky. Petter Solberg slips to 5th place in the category after being taken over by Kajetanowicz who is ahead of him by almost 9s. It is still Solans who completes the provisional WRC 2 podium. Camilli confirmed his retirement for the day after breaking his gearbox.
14h
The soft tires proved to be more efficient than the wet tires in the Querol special, the 12th of the Rally of Spain, and Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) took the opportunity to score his first scratch of the weekend. By completing the 21,26km in 11'25''8, the Alsatian was ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) by 6 tenths but above all took more than 7 seconds from Elfyn Evans (M-Sport), Dani Sordo (Hyundai) and Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport). Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) also lost 7 seconds by finishing behind his teammate Esapekka Lappi.
Craig Breen (Citroën) was less successful than his teammate since the Irishman lost another half a minute with another spin. Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) did not really benefit from it since he only took 6 seconds back in the C3 WRC.
Jari-Matti Latvala remains in the lead of the Rally of Spain, extending his lead over Dani Sordo to 4”7. Sébastien Loeb climbs onto the provisional podium by coming back to 2''8 behind the Spaniard and standing 7''5 from the lead of the race. Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) slips to 4th place, more than 4 seconds behind the Alsatian. Sébastien Ogier follows his teammate a little over 3 seconds while having less than 8 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville. Esapekka Lappi remains 7th with still a good lead over his teammate Ott Tänak. Craig Breen maintains 9th place with 24 seconds ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen.
14h
Täak finished 7″4 behind Loeb’s scratch. The Toyota driver is now almost 25 seconds behind his teammate Lappi in the general classification.
14h
Tänak is further behind with 7s behind Loeb in the 4th split.
14h
Sordo drops 7″8 to Loeb but retains 2nd place with a 2″8 lead over the Citroën driver. The provisional podium is grouped into 7″5.
14h
Sordo is now almost 7s behind Loeb in the last partial.
14h
Sordo is 4″5 behind Loeb at the 3rd intermediate. He had around ten seconds ahead of the Alsatian at the start of the ES.
14h
Evans drops 7″5 to Loeb and falls behind the Alsatian with more than 4 seconds behind. The Citroën driver could take 2nd place according to Sordo's time... but the Spaniard seems to be losing a lot of time!
14h
Loeb returned to 7″5 behind provisional leader Latvala in the general classification.
14h
Evans is now 5s behind Loeb in the last partial.
14h
Evans is almost 3s behind Loeb in the 3rd intermediate. Sordo is at 2″5 in the previous split.
14h
And Loeb signs the provisional scratch for 6 tenths ahead of Neuville. “We could have done much better”, nevertheless affirms the Alsatian to Daniel Elena.
14h
Loeb is now the fastest in the last split with 6 tenths ahead of Neuville.
14h
Loeb now has a lead of almost 3 seconds over Ogier in the 3rd intermediate position.
14h
Latvala drops 6″4 to Neuville but is ahead of Ogier by a few tenths.
14h
Loeb has a little more than a second ahead of Ogier and is half a second behind Neuville. The soft tires seem effective on this course.
14h
Latvala is 5s behind Neuville in the 4th split. Will the Toyota driver be able to maintain the lead against Sordo?
14h
Mikkelsen finished half a minute behind his teammate Neuville. The Norwegian is still not there and only takes 6 seconds from Breen who made a mistake.
14h
Loeb is ahead of Ogier by a small tenth in the first score.
