Rally of Catalonia 2018
10h
The crews are now preparing to face the 24,4km of El Montmell, the last time of the first pass. Al Qassimi is expected to leave at 10:08 a.m.
10h
Rovanperä takes the lead in WRC 2, now ahead of Camilli by 5 seconds after gaining more than 17 seconds from the VW driver. Kopecky came back to within 5s of the Frenchman by taking over Petter Solberg's Polo GTI R5.
09h
The different strategies in the rainy conditions of the second stage of the Rally of Spain seem to benefit the Toyotas. By choosing rain tires, Ott Tänak took the scratch in the 21,26km of Querol, ahead of his teammate Jari-Matti Latvala by 3s.
The competition has nevertheless mainly focused on soft compounds that are less effective in these conditions. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) was closest to the first Yaris WRC with 6 seconds behind, preceding Sébastien Ogier (M-Sport), Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), Elfyn Evans (M-Sport) and Esapekka Lappi (Toyota).
Sébastien Loeb (Citroën) only set the 8th fastest time, almost 13 seconds behind the benchmark and was around ten seconds ahead of his teammate Craig Breen who damaged the rear of his C3 WRC while going head-to-head. -queue.Behind Teemu Suninen (M-Sport), Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) is the biggest loser with almost a minute behind!
Ott Tänak now has a 33-second lead over Dani Sordo and could further increase his lead with heavy showers falling on the next course. Elfyn Evans finds herself 6 seconds behind the national star. Jari-Matti Latvala moved up to 4th place for a little less than 2 seconds ahead of Sébastien Loeb who maintains a 4 second lead over his former teammate Sébastien Ogier. Craig Breen follows in 7th place with only half a second ahead of Thierry Neuville who has 9 seconds ahead of Esapekka Lappi. Andreas Mikkelsen fell to 10th position.
09h
Tänak takes the scratch with a 3″ lead over his teammate Latvala. The Estonian now has a 6s lead over Sordo.
09h
Tänak is in “attack” mode. The leader of the Rally of Spain is 3″5 ahead of his teammate Latvala in the 4th split…
09h
Sordo reaches the finish line 2″5 behind Latvala. The Hyundai driver consolidates his 2nd position with a 6s lead over Evans. “We don't have many tires for these conditions. I am satisfied with my time. »
09h
Sordo is the closest to Latvala with less than 3 seconds behind in the special.
09h
The damage to Breen’s Citroën:
@Craig_Breen inspects the damage after his spin #WRC #wrclive @RallyRACC pic.twitter.com/TQ3Pc2UOIy
— WRC (@OfficialWRC) 27th October, 2018
09h
Evans sets the 4th fastest time, almost 6s behind Latvala. The M-Sport driver also chose the soft tires which did not prove to be the most suitable. The Welshman maintains the advantage over Latvala for just over 2s. “Some corners were very dirty, it's hard to judge whether we can go there or not. »
09h
The rain tires should again make the difference in the next SS where heavy showers are reported.
09h
Loeb sets the 5th fastest time, more than 9 seconds behind Latvala who overtakes the nine-time WRC champion with a little less than 2 seconds in advance. “We can go much faster. It's very complicated because the car is very nervous. The tires are not suitable with this much rain. »
09h
Sordo, on the other hand, started strong with almost a second over Latvala in the first partial.
09h
Loeb is behind in the special with more than 8s behind Latvala in the special. The Finn should take over the Alsatian.
09h
Latvala sets the new reference time with a 4” lead over Ogier. The rain tires finally seem to work well. The Toyota driver pushes Ogier back almost 1s and could catch up with Loeb who is fighting for 6rd position.
09h
Mikkelsen drops 44s to Ogier in the special! The Hyundai driver fell to 9th position behind Lappi. “It was too slippery for me to be confident. I was still too careful and I have to attack more. » The M-Sport driver climbs to 6th place.
09h
Mikkelsen lost a lot of time in the special with half a minute behind in the 4th split. The Hyundai driver risks losing several places.
09h
Ogier improves the benchmark with a 1″2 lead over Neuville. The M-Sport driver could take 6th place from Mikkelsen who is only a few tenths ahead of him. “The car is slipping quite a bit. We had trouble getting the tires to work. »
09h
Latvala is the fastest in the first split with almost 2 seconds ahead of Neuville. The Toyota driver preferred rain tires.
09h
Loeb has just started in the first SS of the day.
09h
Breen finally lost a little more than 14 seconds to Neuville and only retained 8th position for half a second. His C3 WRC is damaged at the rear. The rear wing and the bumper particularly suffered in the spin. The Irishman got out of his car to see the damage.
