Date: Friday, March 17th
Day: 2 Flash N°: 4
Special stage: Ortega 1 Distance: 15.71 km
Weather: Warm and sunny, 17°C
Road conditions: Dry and dusty
OGIER FASTEST BUT LAPPI STILL LEADS; TÄNAK STRUGGLES ON
The Ortega stage climbed slightly higher above sea level than SS3 and ran for 15.71km. The start was delayed as a result of the stoppage on SS3 but Tänak retained stage-opening duties.
As a result of the Estonian’s ongoing turbo issue and lack of speed, Rovanperä started the stage five minutes behind and both he and Neuville clouted a large bump in the track at high-speed that hadn’t been there during the making of the recce notes.
Sébastien Ogier enjoyed a clean run and posted the fastest time of 8min 27.8sec. He beat Esapekka Lappi by four-tenths of a second but the Finn retained a 0.8-second lead.
After the stoppage on SS3, the WRC2 runners got their first taste of Méxican gravel action. Greensmith posted the target of 8min 58.4sec. The Briton’s former team-mate Adrien Fourmaux was 1.3 seconds quicker.
STAGE DELAYED BY 11 MINUTES AFTER STOPPAGE ON SS3
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
Can you get back to service? “I don’t know. Where is it!”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“Quite okay, I made some changes to the car this one and it was not so good for the grip. After the
recce someone make a new speed bump in the stage and we came over it at 190km/h. It was not good.
I feel it.”
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
Nose-heavy landing over a high-speed bump. “It was crazy and very painful. We didn’t expect that to
be honest. It came as a surprise. I thought we were going to go off. It was in a really fast section. Luckily
we are here and the car is working well.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Not too bad. It’s difficult to know in these conditions. It doesn’t feel great everywhere. It’s definitely
slippy out there.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“The grip is always very tricky in Chocolate. This one was a bit more enjoyable to drive. So far, so good.”
Car 4. LAPPI/FERM
“The beginning of the stage I didn’t do so well but the second part was much better.”
Car 18. KATSUTA/JOHNSTON
His 30th birthday. “It was not dust, it was proper smoke (on the last stage).~
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“Not very well. I lost a little bit of time at the end. I did not have the confidence and the car was moving
like hell.”
Car 20. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“It wasn’t great. The soft tyres are moving a lot. Hard to find precision. It wasn’t a great run.”
