Rally Australia - Day 2
Volkswagen ended day two of Rally Australia with a great chance of its first World Rally Championship podium sweep, with Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikkelsen unchallenged in first, second and third. Their nearest challenger Kris Meeke's chances of a Rally Australia podium was earlier scuppered by the imposition of a one-minute penalty for corner-cutting.
The Northern Irish driver had ended Saturday's leg in fourth, 1.5 seconds behind Andreas Mikkelsen, but the Citroen driver was captured on camera taking an extreme cut on the first running of Saturday morning's televised Valla stage and has been given a 1m01s penalty as a result, droping him down the order to fifth, 0.6s behind Mikko Hirvonen in fourth but over a minute adrift of the podium battle.
The FIA had tightened rules regarding corner-cutting after an incident involving Andreas Mikkelsen on June's Rally Poland and drivers are now banned from going more than one car's width inside the edge of the stage. Meeke has it al to do now on the final day of Rally Australia to secure another much-needed podium finish.
13th September, 2014