A dramatic change in weather conditions greeted the Rally Australia crews on the final day of competition, but Thierry Neuville has managed to control his advantage, keep the car on the road and maintain a 14.7 second lead as the crews head into the final kilometres of the event.

Jari-Matti Latvala holds second, the Finn not prepared to take big risks and happy his 11.3 second advantage to third-placed Ott Tänak is manageable to the finish.

Rain had been forecast and created incredibly slippery conditions over the first three of the day’s five stages. Neuville started the day with 20.1 seconds in hand but dropped over half of that in the second stage alone when he caught the worst of the monsoon-like rain in the long Bucca stage.

He managed to claw some of that back in the final test with fastest time and is now confident he can maintain his lead to the end.

Latvala is happy with the gap to Tänak, who has halved last night’s deficit to the Finn; he is concentrating on retaining his podium position to uphold M-Sport’s record of top three finishes on each event of the season.

Behind the leading trio, Hayden Paddon has moved into fourth following the retirement of Craig Breen.

The Irish driver rolled in the second stage, following in the footsteps of team-mate Stéphane Lefebvre who had to retire in the first one after hitting a tree and damaging the rear suspension.

Reigning FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier continues to be plagued by gear shift problems and uncharacteristically checked into the last stage a minute early amid frantic attempts to solve the problem. He is fifth with a comfortable advantage over Elfyn Evans, whose DMACK tyres came into their own this morning in the wet conditions.

The Welshman was fastest in the day’s opener but then also had a gear selection problem. Esapekka Lappi is seventh and the last of the WRC crews who are not in Rally 2. Kris Meeke, returning after damaging the suspension yesterday, is eighth and now using the event as a high-speed recce.

Kalle Rovanperä also returned under Rally 2 regulations and continues his lonely drive in the FIA WRC 2 Championship category.

Thierry Neuville took the lead of Rally Australia at the midpoint of Saturday’s second leg after team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen retired when he hit a bank and punctured two tyres.

Mikkelsen’s hopes of repeating his victory 12 months ago were shattered early in a dramatic Newry stage when the Norwegian made a mistake. The impact punctured his Hyundai i20’s front and rear left tyres and with only one spare onboard, he could not continue.

“It happened about 2km after the start on a right-hander over a crest, third or fourth gear. I touched the bank on the outside quite hard. Sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don’t. This time we didn’t,” explained the emotional Norwegian.

“I thought I had a puncture on the left rear but soon after the front felt strange too. I have one spare so we’re not going anywhere. It’s devastating. With our tyre choice we didn’t consider two spares. We were saving our tyres for later.”

It wasn’t plain sailing for Neuville either. He was one of several drivers to overshoot a corner early in the stage and dropped almost 10sec.

“I went straight on at a junction. I was following lines in the road, braked too late and had to reverse. It was a tricky bend, I knew it was tightening but didn’t know when,” said the Belgian, who also lost first gear and planned a gearbox change at the Coffs Harbour service.

Jari-Matti Latvala (below) was fastest in Newry and after safely negotiating the short fan-favourite Raceway test, the Finn steered his Toyota Yaris into service just 6.3sec behind Neuville.

“It was a good morning I must say, and now a surprising situation. Now it’s a tough fight and Thierry is fighting really, really hard,” said Latvala.

Mikkelsen’s demise allowed Kris Meeke to regain third in his Citroën C3, 15.7sec behind Latvala. Ott Tänak was fastest in Raceway in his Ford Fiesta and the Estonian closed to within 4.8sec of Meeke, who overshot the same junction as Neuville.

Craig Breen was fifth ahead of Hayden Paddon, who finished Newry with a branch poking through his i20’s grille perilously close to the radiator. Sébastien Ogier was seventh in his Fiesta and another to overshoot, with Stéphane Lefebvre, Elfyn Evans and Esapekka Lappi completing the leaderboard.

source: wrc.com

Thierry Neuville repelled Jari-Matti Latvala’s challenge to restore a comfortable lead at Rally Australia on Saturday afternoon.

The Hyundai i20 driver won the Welshs Creek and Argents Hill speed tests to extend his advantage from 6.3sec to 19.0sec, leaving Latvala to admit his hopes of overhauling the Belgian were disappearing.

Neuville delivered a stunning performance in Welshs Creek. In conditions that ranged from bone dry gravel to treacherously slippery mud, he stopped the clocks 9.9sec faster than Latvala, before eking out a further 2.8sec in Argents Hill.

“I got into the first stage, the tyres felt good so I kept going and when it started to get dry I really pushed hard. The next one was more slippery and I struggled a bit with oversteer, so not so much fun,” said Neuville.

“Now I have a good lead but we have to be careful. If the rain comes tomorrow it’s going to be very difficult.”

Latvala posted top three times in both tests but cut a frustrated figure after Argents Hill when he saw the timesheets. Asked if he could still win, the Toyota Yaris pilot replied:

“If Thierry is keeping that speed, no chance. When I’m on mixed tyres the balance of the cars isn’t so great and I’m not as confident as I was this morning. I haven’t been running so much in this car with the mixed tyre package and it seems a bit of an issue for me now.”

Kris Meeke’s podium hopes vanished when he swiped the rear of his Citroën C3 against a Welshs Creek bridge and broke the rear suspension. He retired at the start of Argents Hill, promoting Ott Tänak to third.

The Estonian punctured in Welshs Creek and had to fit a worn soft tyre to his Ford Fiesta for the next test. He held a 25.0sec advantage over Craig Breen in fourth, with Hayden Paddon a further 14.9sec back in fifth.

Sébastien Ogier slid wide into a bank in the final slippery section of Welshs Creek and spun. The impact ripped the bumper from his Fiesta and a chunk of the front splitter. The Frenchman lost 10sec but was up to sixth.

Stéphane Lefebvre spun and stalled his Citroën C3’s engine after a Welshs Creek crest.

The second pass through Newry was cancelled due to a damaged bridge mid-stage, so just two passes through the Coffs Harbour waterfront tests remain this evening.

source: wrc.com

Thierry Neuville ate into team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen’s Rally Australia lead in Saturday morning’s opening Nambucca speed test.

The Belgian was fastest through the marathon special stage in his Hyundai i20 to cut the deficit to Mikkelsen by 4.5sec to 15.6sec.

The farmland shire roads were wet and muddy for the opening 10km after heavy morning rain, but conditions dried further into the stage. Both drivers sported soft compound tyres on their cars to varying degrees, but Neuville appeared to have the better option.

His i20 was fitted with soft tyres all round, while Mikkelsen mixed hard and soft compounds and admitted he could have done no more to repel his colleague.

“I was flat out. We are on different tyre strategies so we’ll see for the rest of the weekend how that works. I don’t think mine was optimal in there but I’m saving my softs for later,” he explained.

Neuville’s only problem was the heat inside his i20. “I pushed quite hard and tried to do a good stage but I was quite disturbed by my sweating. I was sweating like hell and sometimes I lost concentration,” he said.

Jari-Matti Latvala separated the duo in the stage, second quickest in his Toyota Yaris and 3.9sec slower than Neuville’s winning pace. He relegated Kris Meeke to fourth and there was a twinkle in the Finn’s eyes at the finish.

“I definitely had a big attack. At the beginning maybe I was a bit too aggressive but then I started to get the rhythm. When conditions are like this you have to take chances,” he said.

His advantage over Meeke’s Citroën C3 in the overall standings was 3.5sec. The Briton had no problems but admitted fourth fastest time was the best he could do. “The guys were just faster and that’s it,” he said.

Ott Tänak was fifth in his Ford Fiesta to move ahead of Craig Breen into fifth in the standings.

Stéphane Lefebvre lost time early in the test when he spun and stalled his engine. The Frenchman reported a strange feeling with his Citroën C3 for the rest of the stage.

 source: wrc.com