Latvala takes early Rally Argentina lead
Jari-Matti Latvala took the Rally Argentina lead on the morning loop in his Volkswagen Polo, ahead of Hyundai's Hayden Paddon and Volkswagen team-mate Sebastien Ogier who'd held the lead until the penultimate stage when Latvala and Paddon moved past. Paddon was the first to overhaul Ogier with a run that was 1.4s quicker on SS4, but improving stage conditions meant that Latvala surged past for the rally lead on his later run and then cemented his lead by finishing the superspecial second, meaning he narrowly edges Paddon ahead of the afternoon loop by 5.4s.
Paddon wasn't the only quick Hyundai in Argentina though with Dani Sordo finishing the morning fifth behind the third Volkswagen of Andreas Mikkelsen who was initially followed by the DMACK Fiesta of Ott Tanak, but Tanak was unable to take part in the superspecial due to an alternator belt problem on the stage before.
M-Sport's Mads Ostberg then rose to sixth, with his conservative running allowing him to take advantange of the high attrition. Norwegian Henning Solberg lies in an impressive seventh in his second WRC event of the year, beating Lorenzo Bertelli and M-Sport's Eric Camilli. Rounding off the top ten was Marcos Ligato, returning to the WRC for his home event.
Thierry Neuville had a disappointing start to his Rally, finishing the morning in 12th place despite winning the superspecial. But he then hit a rock in SS3 before coming to a stop in the following stage with an electrical issue prior to his stage win.
Elfyn Evans also suffered with his electrics, having to make an early return to the service park and his struggles meant that Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari took a narrow lead in WRC2.
22nd April, 2016