STAGE FLASH
Date: Saturday, March 18th
Day: 3 Flash N°: 14
Special stage: Las Dunas Super Special 2 Distance: 3.53 km
Weather: Warm and sunny
Road conditions: Dry and dusty
NEUVILLE CLOSES IN ON EVANS AT THE MIDDAY BREAK; OGIER OUT IN FRONT
The second pass of the weekend through the Las Dunas quarry stage preceded a return to the service area in León. WRC2 crews got their first taste of competitive action after taking a road detour following Esapekka Lappi’s accident.
Evans again dropped time to Neuville and headed to the midday break with his grip on second place reduced to 8.7 seconds. The Belgian had set three consecutive fastest times. Ogier’s lead was 28.5 seconds.
Oliver Solberg was the quickest of the WRC2 runners with the third fastest time of all the drivers, although sixth-placed Gus Greensmith led Adrien Fourmaux by 17.7 seconds.
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“Yesterday we had technical issues and the car was not driving. Now we have the car fixed and it’s
more or less normal. We need to try to understand on gravel. It is difficult for me to find anything that
makes sense on gravel. For me. it is not working out.”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
“It seems each car has better times. There is not much more we can do. The road is cleaning faster by
each car. It is not easy. Opening the road yesterday we had to use soft tyres and we didn’t have enough
to use for today.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“It’s 8.7 seconds, a little less than this morning. I expected a little bit more this morning. Elfyn was also
driving very well. We are going to improve a bit the handling of he car. In the faster sections that’s where
we are losing time. The car is working okay.”
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“Thierry has been going well. My achilles heel seems to be the little super special here, the loose one.
It’s never easy to push, You have to find the balance between pushing and carrying the speed. The big
rocks are already there from the first pass. I’m feeling good in the car. We will just get on with it and see
what happens.”
Car 17. OGIER/LANDAIS
“It’s a shame the battle ended early in this morning. That’s the way it is with rallying. You need three
days together to win a race and so far we have done one and a half. Now I stay on the safe mode.
There is still risk of puncture and some trouble. I feel good in the car and that’s important.”
Car 4. LAPPI (talking about his crash on SS11)
“The end result was that I was a bit caught out. Let’s say a right with a cut and it went into a left over
crest, right. I stayed on the cut and there was a delay on the entry on the left and we went wide and hit
the bank, spun out and we hit the electricity pole. Very unfortunate and it was fully my mistake. It’s hard
to swallow. On the other hand, when you fight for the win you need to push. Maybe I was not pushing
hard enough. I was not naybe having the same flow you have when you really attack. A bit too late on
the rhythm.
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“With the road position it is really difficult to stay in front and the road cleaning effect was high. The
roads are nice to drive and you enjoy.”
Car 9. SERDERIDIS/MICLOTTE
“We had a small mistake with the notes on the cut yesterday. We lost the Wheel. Today it’s about
cleaning. A good excercise for us. We are not so bad. I am quite happy with the morning. It is full of
tricky parts and you have to be extremely precise. One small mistake is easily penalised here and you
have to be really concentrated.”
