Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala has unleashed a stunning run to swoop on Citroen’s Kris Meeke and claim the lead in Coates Hire Rally Australia.
The Coffs Harbour-based World Rally Championship round has seen twice defending event and WRC champion Sebastien Ogier minimise the damage caused by his road sweeping position on day one.
Latvala spotted Kris Meeke (Citroen) 4.5s going into the eighth and final stage of the day – the 29.51km Newry Long run – but ended up with a 2s lead over the Ulsterman.
Ogier put in a stirring recovery to top SS8 and vault himself back into contention, just 4.6s off the lead in third outright after being 13.8s adrift after SS7.
Latvala won three of the four return stages in the afternoon after going on a concerted attack and risk running out of tyres over the final long test.
“I knew I had to attack earlier so my rear tyres were not in a good shape,” Latvala said who finished 4.7s behind Ogier in SS8.
“I said if I lost 5s then that’s fine and if I lost more then I would be disappointed so I’m happy with this.”
While the cars launched into the final stage at three minute intervals, thick dust hanging in the late afternoon air caused problems for Meeke.
“The dust is hanging. Okay I had a good day and I’m very happy,” Meeke said.
“You can’t see the end of the bonnet; you’re in sixth gear through the forest.”
Earlier Ogier had been clearly annoyed at being hamstrung for much of the day, sweeping the road for the rest of the field.
”We’re pushing like hell all the time and we’re losing time. I can’t give more. I’m really on the limit and lose quite a lot,” Ogier said.
“We had a small transmission problem in this stage, I was losing a bit of traction. Luckily it’s the last stage of the day.”
While Ogier hinted at a possible transmission problem, team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen was also unhappy with his Polo R on the final stage, eluding to a similar issue after winding up day one in fourth.
Hyundai pair Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon are fifth and sixth although the latter said his progress was stymied by an unknown balance issue.
“The first (afternoon) stage felt good but right from the start of the second stage it felt like we’ve had a front-left puncture,” Paddon said.
“Obviously we haven’t but it just feels really, really strange. The balance of the car is really, really inconsistent.”
“Every right hand corner it just doesn’t want to go around at all.”
VIDEO: Afternoon Stages
Top 10 WRC standings after day 1
| POS | CAR NO | DRIVER | CO-DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | DIFF PREV | DIFF 1ST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 2 | J. LATVALA | M. ANTTILA | VOLKSWAGEN MOTORSPORT | 1:15:29.1 | ||
| 2. | 3 | K. MEEKE | P. NAGLE | CITROËN TOTAL ABU DHABI WRT | 1:15:31.1 | +2.0 | +2.0 |
| 3. | 1 | S. OGIER | J. INGRASSIA | VOLKSWAGEN MOTORSPORT | 1:15:33.7 | +2.6 | +4.6 |
| 4. | 9 | A. MIKKELSEN | O. FLOENE | VOLKSWAGEN MOTORSPORT II | 1:15:42.0 | +8.3 | +12.9 |
| 5. | 20 | D. SORDO | M. MARTI | HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT N | 1:15:45.0 | +3.0 | +15.9 |
| 6. | 8 | H. PADDON | J. KENNARD | HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT | 1:15:54.6 | +9.6 | +25.5 |
| 7. | 7 | T. NEUVILLE | N. GILSOUL | HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT | 1:16:06.3 | +11.7 | +37.2 |
| 8. | 6 | O. TANAK | R. MOLDER | M-SPORT WORLD RALLY TEAM | 1:16:09.3 | +3.0 | +40.2 |
| 9. | 5 | E. EVANS | D. BARRITT | M-SPORT WORLD RALLY TEAM | 1:17:50.9 | +1:41.6 | +2:21.8 |
| 10. | 37 | L. BERTELLI | L. GRANAI | FWRT SRL | 1:19:07.0 | +1:16.1 | +3:37.9 |
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