Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen leads Kennards Hire Rally Australia after the first run of stages this morning which saw team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala’s victory hopes severely damaged.
Running third on the road, Mikkelsen and co-driver Anders Jaeger won four of the five stages to open up a 13.7s lead over Hyundai’s Dani Sordo with New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon in third.
However, it proved to be disastrous start for one of the favourites Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen) after a costly error on the opening Utungen 7.88km stage.
The Finn ran wide and swiped a bridge causing severe damage to his rear suspension that forced him to limp through the remaining stages.
There were no such problems for Mikkelsen, who won the opening stage before briefly losing the lead to Paddon after the 29-year-old took victory on Stage 2 for Hyundai.
Mikkelsen went on to pip Paddon by 1.7s in Stage 3 (Northbank) before opening up a healthy lead in Stage 4 (Newry16) which was shortened from 25.3km to 10.49km due to extreme dust.
He wrapped up the morning run by sharing the win in the 1.37km Raceway Super Special Stage 5 with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
“We have had a good morning,” said Mikkelsen.
“I though the guys behind would have been faster so it is has been a great start.
“There has been no moments and it has been a good clean drive.”
Sordo enjoyed a solid run through the stages to claim second overall as the crews headed back to service, but the Spaniard is likely to face a penalty after arriving at Stage 4 (Newry16) two minutes late.
Kiwi Paddon is third overall after a strong start to his Rally Australia bid that saw him claim Stage 2 (Bakers Creek) by 2s from Mikkelsen.
Although, a gamble to fit two hard tyres proved costly as he lost 12.6s on Stage 4 to the soft tyre runners, which dropped him 14.2s behind the leader.
“We tried something with the tyres which didn’t quite work out but we are still in the fight,” said Paddon.
“There is a long way to go and today is all about getting into position for Saturday which is my favourite day of the whole championship.”
Forced to sweep the roads by being the first to tackle the stages, four-time world champion Sebastien Ogier impressed throughout to enter service just 20.1s adrift of the leader in fourth.
Meanwhile, Latvala’s drama saw him crawl back to service in 19th position more than six minutes shy of Mikkelsen despite undergoing makeshift repairs in the break between stages.
“We have a broken suspension. It’s my mistake, I went wide over the bridge,” said Latvala.
“We managed some repairs but the faster I went the more I was risking losing the whole (left-rear) wheel. I had to drive smoothly.”
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who was second on the road, was fifth ahead of M-Sport’s Mads Ostberg, Eric Camilli and Ott Tanak.
Tanak had been running third overall until he lost time on Stage 4 when his Ford suffered a sticking throttle. He also encountered a spin after confusion with the pace notes.
The WRC field will head back out for the second run through Utungen, Bakers Creek, Northbank and Newry stages with Ogier set to start Stage 6 at 1310 local time.
Skoda’s Esapekka Lappi leads WRC2 by 39.8s, while Brendan Reeves is the top Australian in 13th overall.
In the Australian Rally Championship, Simon Evans holds a massive 24.8s lead over Harry Bates and Adrian Coppin third.
Championship hopeful Molly Taylor ended the first five stages in eighth.
Result: Kennards Hire Rally Australia after Stage 5
VIDEO: Morning Highlights
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