WRC Poland: Sebastien Ogier holds narrow lead after second leg
Sebastien Ogier will lead Rally Poland into Saturday's stages by just 0.9 seconds over his Volkswagen team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen
The gap between the leading duo was 1.5s after a closely-fought morning loop of stages, but with the re-runs through the Lithuanian tests being abandoned, the pair only had 15.39 kilometres available in the evening on which to make a difference.
The battle for the lead did take a brief turn after the Wieliczki stage when a flat-out run by Mikkelsen put him 1.0s ahead of his rival, but Ogier returned to the top of the pile by going 1.9s quicker through the 2.50km Mikolajki Arena superspecial.
Mads Ostberg remains in the mix in third, while Jari-Matti Latvala and Kris Meeke are embroiled in a battle for fourth and 8.0s separates them at present.
Juho Hanninen continues to be the fastest Hyundai driver in sixth and has managed to keep his compatriot Mikko Hirvonen at arm's length through the final two stages of the day.
Local favourite Robert Kubica and M-Sport Ford team-mate Elfyn Evans both gained a position due to Thierry Neuville's misfortune during the Wieliczki stage.
The Belgian lost the best part of 20s when the rear left calliper seized up on his Hyundai i20 WRC and caused a small fire moments after he had reached the finish.
The fire was immediately extinguished and Neuville was able to continue to the superspecial after removing the wheel and temporarily disconnecting the rear brakes.
Leading positions after SS10: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 47m22.4s 2. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +0.9s 3. Mads Ostberg Citroen +19.5s 4. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +32.0s 5. Kris Meeke Citroen +40.0s 6. Juho Hanninen Hyundai +46.8s 7. Mikko Hirvonen M-Sport Ford +1m06.8s 8. Robert Kubica M-Sport Ford +1m16.1s 9. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +1m21.4s 10. Thierry Neuville Hyundai +1m22.8s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments