Rally of Catalonia 2019
09h
The crews returned to service before the second pass. Meeke is expected to leave Riudecanyes from 10:54 a.m.
09h
Ostberg remains at the top of WRC 2 with a good lead over the Skodas of Kopecky and Rovanperä. Camilli is still leader of WRC 2 but Loubet lost almost 2 minutes on the last course and finds himself 4th almost 3 minutes behind his compatriot.
09h
Dani Sordo (Hyundai) scores his second scratch at the Catalonia Rally by winning the La Mussara special, SS2 of the event. The Spaniard was ahead of his direct rival Ott Tänak (Toyota) by a second. Leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) was further behind, falling almost 15 seconds behind, finishing behind Teemu Suninen (M-Sport), Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) and Kris Meeke (Toyota).
Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) is still not there and fails by a dozen seconds, finishing behind Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) and Sébastien Ogier (Citroën).
Thierry Neuville maintains a lead of 17”5 over Dani Sordo who increases his lead to 4”5. Sébastien Loeb only has around ten seconds ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala. Elfyn Evans remains 6th ahead of Teemu Suninen and Sébastien Ogier.
09h
Neuville lost some time, 4”7 behind his teammate Sordo. The Belgian maintains a lead of 17″5 over the Spaniard. “I didn’t want to take any risks. I slowed down at the end. I will attack if my brakes return to good operation. »
09h
Sordo improves Tänak's performance by one second. The Estonian is now 4”5 behind the Hyundai driver. “I lost a little time here, but the time is good. We don't have a big lead but we stay ahead. »
09h
Tänak improves the benchmark against Suninen by 1″3. Loeb is relegated to almost 20 seconds from 3rd place. “It was hard to be confident with these notes which were new. »
09h
Loeb is still not there. The Hyundai driver fails around ten seconds from the benchmark and only maintains a 10s lead over Latvala. “We rode, we are last,” Loeb comments to Elena who wonders: “But still, you rode. » The crew is perplexed by his lack of performance. “The road was getting a little dirtier, but I'm struggling more with the car today. »
09h
Latvala ranks 1″7 behind Suninen and remains well placed in 5th position. “I’m pretty satisfied. It will be hard to catch Loeb with such small gaps. » The Finn was almost 19s behind the Hyundai driver at the start of the special.
09h
Evans fails 4″6 behind his teammate Suninen and only has a 15s lead over the Finn. “The feelings are good. We still need to refine the notes because we lacked aggression. »
08h
Suninen improves Meeke’s time by 2″2. The M-Sport driver occupies 7th position. “I'm tired of finishing 3s behind Ogier on every special stage, I have to try something. »
08h
Ogier ranks 2″8 behind Meeke, playing in 8th place without being able to aim for a better position. “It wasn’t great. The rear wheels slipped quite a bit. »
08h
Katsuta ranks a dozen seconds behind his teammate Meeke. The Japanese is at the bottom of the ranking.
08h
Meeke sets a first time in the special in 11'03″0.
08h
The first drivers took the start of the 20,72km La Mussara special which will serve as a Power Stage in the second passage.
