Tanak leads Argentina into Final Day
Ott Tanak takes a 46.5-second lead into the final day of Rally Argentina despite a few worries about his Toyota on Saturday's last stage as he continued his streak of stage wins on the first two parts of the loop, but was only fourth quickest on the long Cuchilla Nevada stage. He briefly lost power steering in early miles, and had also shed all the oil from one of his Yaris's dampers.
Tanak was still able to stay comfortably clear of a podium battle shaken up by drama for Kris Meeke on the same stage. Meeke tumbled from third to eighth when he had to stop to change a puncture after striking a rock in his Citroen. That moved stage winner Dani Sordo up to third, 21.7s behind his Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville.
Meeke's delay was a further blow to Citroen after it had to retire Craig Breen's car at the midday service having discovered rollcage drama from his morning crash. World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier is a distant fourth, holding the third Hyundai of Andreas Mikkelsen at bay. Esapekka Lappi moved past Elfyn Evans into what became sixth place on Cuchilla Nevada as he recovered from his morning mistake. Kalle Rovanpera continues to lead WRC2 in ninth overall, though Skoda team-mate Pontus Tidemand is closing back in on him. They will start the final day 23.2s apart.
Leading positions after SS15
Pos ..... Driver ..... Team ..... Car ..... Gap
1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing 2h58m33.9s
2 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis 46.5s
3 Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio Hyundai Shell Mobis 1m08.2s
4 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport Ford WRT 1m59.0s
5 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Hyundai Shell Mobis 2m13.8s
6 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing 2m42.9s
7 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport Ford 2m49.1s
8 Kris Meeke, P.Nagle Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 3m20.4s
9 Teemu Suninen, M.Markkula M-Sport Ford WRT 4m17.6s
10 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Skoda Motorsport 10m50.2s
28th April, 2018