WRC Argentina: Kris Meeke takes lead, Sebastien Ogier retires early
Kris Meeke holds a narrowing Rally Argentina lead after a dramatic first morning of stages, as reigning World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier retired with suspected engine trouble
Mads Ostberg had looked like the man most likely to capitalise on Ogier's retirement on the rally's first full-length stage, but he lost time around the halfway point of the Ascochinga test with an intermittent engine issue, similar to the one he suffered in Monte Carlo.
Instead, it was Ostberg's Citroen team-mate Kris Meeke who came through to take the lead, but a puncture on SS3 meant his advantage immediately fell to just 15.3 seconds, down from 32.7s.
Jari-Matti Latvala - the sole remaining frontrunning Volkswagen - emerged as the closest man to Meeke after the second stage, setting a blistering time, 10.2s quicker than nearest challenger Ostberg and 18.6s ahead of Meeke.
Ostberg holds third ahead of M-Sport duo Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans - who suffered in the dust of Thierry Neuville on the morning's first stage. Neuville had been delayed changing a puncture.
Dani Sordo ended up sixth after SS3, having ended the first test second. The Spaniard developed a power steering issue early on, and couldn't rectify it on the road section before the second stage.
VW's third driver Andreas Mikkelsen suffered a front right puncture and front suspension failure over the course of the morning and is already nearly five minutes from the lead.
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