Date: Saturday, March 18th
Day: 3 Flash N°: 17
Special stage: Derramadero 2 (Live TV) Distance: 21.70 km
Weather: Hot and sunny, 30°C
Road conditions: Dry and dusty
OGIER IN CONTROL; NEUVILLE CLOSES IN ON EVANS; LOUBET IN THE WARS
A repeat run through Derramadero brought the day’s longer stages to a close. Pierre-Louis Loubet clouted the rear of his Puma on the approach to a fast left-hander and damaged the suspension. The crew worked on the rear of the car to try and continue.
Kalle Rovanperä survived a spin in a narrow part of the stage and Thierry Neuville continued to eat into Elfyn Evans’s hold on second with the fastest time. The gap dropped to 5.9 seconds. Sébastien Ogier leads by 36.3 seconds.
Gus Greensmith maintained sixth overall and took a WRC2 lead of 19.3 seconds to SS18. Oliver Solberg claimed the fastest WRC2 time and moved up to fourth when Kajetan Kajetanowicz collected a puncture and lost over 50 seconds.
Car 8. TÄNAK/JÄRVEOJA
“At least outside it looks fun. Not like the inside!”
Car 69. ROVANPERÄ/HALTTUNEN
Brief stop in the stage. “I just had a spin in a really narrow place. I was stuck between the barriers and
had to reverse many times, After that I tried to have a normal pace.
Car 11. NEUVILLE/WYDAEGHE
“I tried since the first stage of the loop. Obviously something is not working 100%. I struggled to make
big gaps. We need to continue working on the car. We made a lot of changes at service. Let’s see.
Car 33. EVANS/MARTIN
“It was an okay run from my side. Not a huge amount left. It’s like that. He’s been nibbling away. We
just have to keep going.”
Car 7. LOUBET/GILSOUL
Carried too much speed into a fast left-hander, the Puma ran sideways and Loubet swiped the banking
and damaged the rear of the car. The crew began working on the rear suspensión in a frantic bid to
continue. They then drove away from the stage via a road section.
Car 6. SORDO/CARRERA
“It was quite okay. I enjoy it with the car and I have a little more grip here than the stage before.”
Car 9. SERDERIDIS/MICLOTTE
“Conditions are a little bit better than the previous stage, Mosquito. A very nice stage, a lot of fun.”
Car 20. GREENSMITH/ANDERSSON
“I don’t know what’s changed this afternoon but it’s so difficult to drive the car. It doesn’t feel like a good
stage. Neither of them have.”
Car 21. SOLBERG/EDMONDSON
Fastest of the WRC2 runners and he moved up to fourth in the category.
Car 22. FOURMAUX/CORIA
“It was a safe tyre choice. Unfortunately in that one I was not able to have a clean stage and made a
few mistakes. I decided to push a bit less but the time is still correct, so it’s okay.”
Car 24. LINDHOLM/HÄMÄLÄINEN
“Interesting, the last part was quite nice. I cannot say the same of the beginning. My driving, I am not
finding a rhythm and I am not trusting the pace notes. I guess we need to be happy to be within a few
seconds of the guys.”
Car 25. KAJETANOWICZ/SZCZEPANIAK
Lost fourth place in WRC2 to Oliver Solberg after collecting a puncture. “Six kilometres before the finish.
This is rally. This is Rally of México. This happens.”
