Organizers of Wales Rally GB have announced further changes to the route of October's WRC counter following the discovery of a tree disease in mid-wales.

The original itinerary included two runs through the 31.82km Myherin on Friday, but this has now been shortened to 18.20km to allow Natural Resources Wales (NRW), who manage the forests, to remove larch trees infected by the fungus-like Phytophthora ramorum.

To make up most of the lost stage distance, organisers have added a second running of one of the event's fastest tests, the 13.87km Aberhirnant, to Saturday morning's schedule. 

"We take our environmental responsibility very seriously and work closely with NRW," explained Ben Taylor, the rally's Managing Director. 

"Come October, NRW will be clearing the infected trees out of Myherin, so we have to make other plans. Luckily, we have a route guru in Andrew Kellitt who has crunched the maps and the figures to replace the lost mileage by adding another run through Aberhirnant on Saturday morning." 

"That sounds an incredibly simple solution, but believe me, it has taken about ten route iterations to get there and has had a massive knock-on effect throughout the whole event - stages have been reversed, fuel locations altered and the entire schedule reworked. But we're there now and looking forward to making this fantastic event come to life in October."

With the addition of Aberhirnant, the new schedule totals 300.13km over 21 special stages, compared to the earlier 20-stage total of 306.98km.     
 
Last month, organisers revealed that Sunday's opening pass through the Gwydir stage had been dropped. The decision was taken after teams complained that the schedule didn't allow enough of a break after a late finish on Saturday night. Sunday's action will instead start at 0834hrs, almost two hours later than planned, with the Alwen stage.

Hyundai Motorsport boss Michel Nandan has paid tribute to his team after it secured its best WRC result to date at the 74th Rally Poland.

Hyundai scored its third victory of the season last weekend, with Thierry Neuville and Hayden Paddon securing the team’s first 1-2 since ADAC Rallye Deutschland 2014. 

Dani Sordo completed the rally in fourth place, making it the most successful combined result for Hyundai since it joined the championship in 2014.

Hyundai also set a new personal best for stage wins, taking 12 fastest times from the 22 contested stages in Poland. 

“This is a really important result for us as a team, especially in terms of our championship objectives,"Nandan said. 

"More than that, though, it shows what we can achieve as a team when we are all on top of our game. Everyone has performed fantastically this weekend, and this 1-2 result is for all of our employees in Alzenau."

Hyundai has reasserted its title intentions in the manufacturers’ championship, reducing the gap on leaders M-Sport from 40 to 22 points, while Neuville slashed Sébastien Ogier’s drivers' championship lead to 11 points. 

But as the championship enters a crucial phase, with five rounds remaining, Nandan denied he was feeling the pressure. 

"I think we have no more pressure than normal," he said. "Everybody has to do his job and we have development work in progress. When you are doing the championship you have to be careful not to do any mistakes."

"We will see, for sure, some nice battles again. Since the beginning of the season, everything has been quite close. I hope it continues to the end of the year."

In Rally Poland it was four betting opportunities on jumps. Mads Ostberg won one, and was strongly challenged on the other three - but there was one common denominator.

Mads Ostberg has so far been the long flying Jump King of the WRC. In the 74th Rally Poland he was strongly challenged by stiff competition – but with one common denominator – they were all driving Fords.

First edition of the Friday jump on SS4 and SS8 saw Ott Tanak netting the longest flight, with 43 meters. Ostberg fought back on the second running, with an incredible 46 meters.

There was a new betting opportunity on Sunday, with the Flying Finish jump on SS21 and SS23 (same stage). The talented Finn Teemu Suninen was longest with 23 meters on the first loop. Then Elfyn Evans was longest with 22 meters on the second loop.

Longest jumps:

Friday

SS4: Tanak 43 m

SS8: Ostberg 46 m

Sunday:

SS21: Sunninen 23

SS23: Evans 22

The Belgian duo of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul maintained their composure under the fiercest of pressure to emerge comfortable winners of an enthralling 74^th Rally Poland on Sunday.

The lead of one of the most unpredictable ever rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship changed on 10 occasions during the 23 special stages, but the Hyundai Motorsport driver won nine of them to reach the finish 1min 23.8sec clear of New Zealand team-mate Hayden Paddon and his British co-driver Seb Marshall. It set up a best ever 1-2-4 finish for the Korean manufacturer, with Dani Sordo in fourth place and a first podium finish for co-driver Marshall in the WRC.

Neuville started the day just 3.1 seconds in front of M-Sport World Rally Team’s Ott Tanak. The Estonian produced a scintillating time through the treacherous opening stage to regain the outright lead for the fourth time this weekend, but the Ford Fiesta WRC driver was caught out on a slippery section under the trees in the second stage of the morning and spun the car into a banking. The impact sucked the nose into a tree and Tanak was fortunate to be able to finish the stage. With the Fiesta leaking vital engine fluids, it would go no further and the winner of the recent event in Sardinia was out of the running.

Neuville, who claimed his fifth ever WRC win and third this year, said: “I am really happy. Two events in a row we are closing the gap on Ogier. The last five races, every last metre of every stage has been tough. The end of the championship is going to be really interesting.”

Ironically Tanak’s demise helped defending World Champion and team-mate Sébastien Ogier on to the podium in third position. Ogier and Julien Ingrassia failed to win a single stage and a couple of punctureson Saturday cost them time. But the Frenchman retained a trimmed championship lead from a resurgent Neuville to take to the next rally in Finland.

“I was just happy to finish,” said Ogier. “It is not the best podium. We were missing a little performance and we were unlucky with the punctures. I guess the podium is better than we deserved. The season is going to be exciting.”

Finland’s Teemu Suninen revelled in his opportunity to drive a World Rally Car for the first time and the Ford Fiesta driver reached the finish in Mikolajki in sixth position after slipping behind a delighted Frenchman Sébastien Lefebvre -driving the first of the three Citroën C3 WRCs – after a delay on the final Power Stage.

Ford’s Mats Østberg and Elfyn Evans reached the finish in seventh and eighth overall and Andreas Mikkelsen won a late Power Stage tussle with Juha Hänninen to finish ninth for Citroën by just 10.2 seconds.

Toyota GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Jari-Matti Latvala held a top three position for long periods in his Toyota Yaris before missing out on a podium on Saturday afternoon. The Finn claimed five crucial bonus points for winning the Power Stage and won three other special stages during the weekend.

Ole Christian Veiby began the final day with a comfortable WRC 2 lead and the Norwegian took no risks on the closing stages. Swedish rival and series leader Pontus Tidemand was duly able to reduce the gap to just 32.9 seconds at the finish, but Veiby held on to claim the victory. Quentin Gilbert was third, as Frenchman Eric Camilli was not registered for WRC 2 points.

Nil Solans continued his remarkable run of form in WRC 3 to finish comfortably clear of Dennis Radström and Jakub Brzezinski after Terry Folb lost third place with a flat tyre on the penultimate stage.

74^th Rally Poland – positions after SS23:

1. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Nicolas Gilsoul (BEL) Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC2hr 40min 46.1sec
2. Hayden Paddon (NZL)/Sebastian Marshall (GBR) Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2hr 42min 10.0sec
3. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Julien Ingrassia (FRA) Ford Fiesta WRC2hr 43min 06.9sec
4. Dani Sordo (ESP)/Marc Marti (ESP) Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC2hr 43min 33.5sec
5. Stéphane Lefebvre (FRA)/Gabin Moreau (FRA) Citroën C3 WRC2hr 43min 57.9sec
6. Teemu Suninen (FIN)/Mikko Markkula (FIN) Ford Fiesta WRC2hr 44min 02.9sec     
7. Mads Østberg (NOR)/Ola Floene (NOR) Ford Fiesta WRC 2hr 44min 25.7sec
8. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Daniel Barritt (GBR) Ford Fiesta WRC2hr 45min 25.2sec
9. Andreas Mikkelsen (NOR)/Anders Jaeger (NOR) Citroën C3 WRC2hr 45min 29.6sec
10. Juha Hänninen (FIN)/Kaj Lindström (FIN) Toyota Yaris WRC2hr 45min 39.8sec