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Rally Poland 2017
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Paddon doesn't maintain that early pace but fifth quickest is decent and puts him into fifth overall. He says the first part of the stage wasn't too bad as it's actually stopped raining.
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Breen's wheels are still turning. He's nearly two minutes off the pace on this stage again and that means he's 7m34s away from the front.
He can now go to service and get that driveshaft fixed, but he points out that his problems won't end there: "Everyone else has had one pass of these stages at full speed and I've been in road mode". He's be learning his way this afternoon.
He can now go to service and get that driveshaft fixed, but he points out that his problems won't end there: "Everyone else has had one pass of these stages at full speed and I've been in road mode". He's be learning his way this afternoon.
Evans is doing a very sensible job today. The DMACKs clearly don't like this level of rain and mud, but after initially looking like he was going to be cut adrift by the rest of the World Rally Car group, Evans has kept his pace steady and is now in the overall top 10.
Crash
Sordo moved up to fifth following Lappi's problem on the last stage, but that might be in jeopardy now - he admits he lost a bit of time with a spin on that one.
Latvala also has a broken windscreen wiper, which he describe as "a little bit disturbing". The broken one was on his side of the car, so they swapped them around on the road section as it's more important that Latvala can see where he's going than co-driver Miikka Anttila.
Crash
Oh. Sorry. We jinxed that: the tracking system now shows Lappi stopped.
Again, Lappi is miles quicker than everybody else running around his region in the start order. His excellent fifth place overall is looking safe on this stage.
Hanninen, delayed by a jump-start penalty last night, was closing on Paddon earlier this morning but lost a couple of seconds there in their battle for what we'll call 'seventh-ish' right now.
Paddon is through, playing it safe and making clear he could go faster but he's not prepared to risk anything. He slots in behind team-mate Sordo for now, so that'll be somewhere in the points but not very high up the top 10.
Poor Breen loses another minute between splits one and two.
Fair to say that the DMACKs aren't the happiest in this weather. Evans is keeping it on the road but he is now a minute off the lead.
Crash
Breen's morning remains miserable. As those of you who were with us earlier will be aware, a driveshaft problem has left him limping along in three-wheel-drive. Already three minutes away from the front of the field, he's now lost another minute by split one of this stage.
Paddon, next on the road, has started a minute behind schedule - which we'd guess he had official dispensation to do so he didn't catch Breen's slow car.
Paddon, next on the road, has started a minute behind schedule - which we'd guess he had official dispensation to do so he didn't catch Breen's slow car.
Sordo is in, and he really, really hates this conditions and is desperate for "constant grip". But he adds: "I'm on the road, so I'm happy."
He's slowest so far, and you'd expect that to work out as a spot in the lower part of the top 10 as more cars come in.
He's slowest so far, and you'd expect that to work out as a spot in the lower part of the top 10 as more cars come in.
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So our close little lead pack now looks like this:
1 Latvala
2 Tanak +3.7s
3 Ogier +5.1s
4 Neuville +6.4s
Not quite so tight anymore.
1 Latvala
2 Tanak +3.7s
3 Ogier +5.1s
4 Neuville +6.4s
Not quite so tight anymore.
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"It's a good feeling with the car," says Latvala. "Some sections are good and actually nice to drive. Some sections are slippery so you have to always think ahead. It's risky and that's difficult to do in this position. If you increase your speed a bit more and are too late in one braking area you can't get it back."
Everyone further back is struggling to a degree, but it's - again - massively impressive that Lappi is struggling less than the rest. Fifth overall for a man 10th on the road is great. That achievement for someone in only his third rally in the top class.
We're looking at a tight four-car lead group heading onto this one, the penultimate stage of the morning loop. Just 2.4s covers Latvala, Ogier, Tanak and Neuville, and as the top four in the championship they're also getting the 'best' (a relative term) of the stage conditions before things get really muddy in their churned-up wake.
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SS3 summary:
* Latvala goes quickest and takes the lead ahead of Ogier
* Tanak draws level with Neuville for third
* Lappi holds fifth despite getting lost in his pace notes
* Lefebvre falls from sixth to 10th
* Mikkelsen also off the pace and down to 11th
* Suninen edges up to eighth on his WRC top class debut
* Breen loses over two minutes with transmission problems
* Latvala goes quickest and takes the lead ahead of Ogier
* Tanak draws level with Neuville for third
* Lappi holds fifth despite getting lost in his pace notes
* Lefebvre falls from sixth to 10th
* Mikkelsen also off the pace and down to 11th
* Suninen edges up to eighth on his WRC top class debut
* Breen loses over two minutes with transmission problems
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SS3 RESULTS
Leading stage times:
1 Latvala 7m33.0s
2 Tanak +0.9s
3 Ogier +1.3s
4 Neuville +3.1s
5 Lappi +7.8s
6 Sordo +9.2s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Latvala
2 Ogier +2.1s
3 Neuville +2.4s
= Tanak +2.4s
5 Lappi +12.6s
6 Sordo +19.6s
7 Paddon +23.7s
8 Suninen +29.1s
9 Hanninen +30.5s
10 Lefebvre +32.3s
11 Mikkelsen +36.0s
12 Evans +38.6s
13 Ostberg +39.7s
Breen +2m56.1s
Leading stage times:
1 Latvala 7m33.0s
2 Tanak +0.9s
3 Ogier +1.3s
4 Neuville +3.1s
5 Lappi +7.8s
6 Sordo +9.2s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Latvala
2 Ogier +2.1s
3 Neuville +2.4s
= Tanak +2.4s
5 Lappi +12.6s
6 Sordo +19.6s
7 Paddon +23.7s
8 Suninen +29.1s
9 Hanninen +30.5s
10 Lefebvre +32.3s
11 Mikkelsen +36.0s
12 Evans +38.6s
13 Ostberg +39.7s
Breen +2m56.1s
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"This time the driving was good," says Suninen. "I think the stages are getting more and more muddy. We had a lot of wheelspin and it was really slippery."
Three more WRC cars to come - Ford privateer Mads Ostberg, the final Citroen of Stephane Lefebvre and M-Sport's promoted WRC2 driver Teemu Suninen.
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Mikkelsen's stage time is 26s off the pace, slower even than the struggling Evans.
That places him ninth overall for now, but expect him to fall further. Has he had a problem?
"It's a stage I really like, I've always been very fast there. But I found it very hard because we were just oversteering in some places, understeering in others. It's hard to get a feeling."
That places him ninth overall for now, but expect him to fall further. Has he had a problem?
"It's a stage I really like, I've always been very fast there. But I found it very hard because we were just oversteering in some places, understeering in others. It's hard to get a feeling."
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Meanwhile, that wasn't an entirely smooth stage for Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm: "A small error with the pace note reading, a normal mistake, we are just human beings. We were a bit... let's say I didn't know where to go for a minute. But we are OK and we are here."
Paddon will be OK, Breen's a minute and a half off by split two and they have a three-minute gap on the road.
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Evans explains his troubles: "It's pretty hard for us, to be honest. In the beginning I was pretty surprised at the level of grip and for sure I could have gone harder, but in the second half I was really struggling under braking."
Breen's three-wheel-drive pace is such that he might actually get caught on the stage by Hayden Paddon's Hyundai.
Evans finishes the stage 20s off the pace.
Stopwatch
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier is rattling through this stage now. He's third at present, but the splits already have him on course to close right in on and maybe depose our current rally leader Thierry Neuville here.
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Prior to their unfortunate huge accident, Osian Pryce and his co-driver Dale Furniss provided our stage descriptions for today.
Here's what's coming up, sadly without them:
SS3 Wieliczki (9.91 miles)
This is a high-speed stage run on a really nice wide road. It’s stages like this one where we’re going to see the big speed this week. Having said that, the stage does get a bit more narrow towards the finish.
There’s less margin for error in that section and that’s where you have to be really on top of the rhythm; when you’ve had the car absolutely flat-out and flying then it’s crucial for me to listen to Dale and the tone in his voice emphasising the speed change and the need to keep the car neat and tidy.
Here's what's coming up, sadly without them:
SS3 Wieliczki (9.91 miles)
This is a high-speed stage run on a really nice wide road. It’s stages like this one where we’re going to see the big speed this week. Having said that, the stage does get a bit more narrow towards the finish.
There’s less margin for error in that section and that’s where you have to be really on top of the rhythm; when you’ve had the car absolutely flat-out and flying then it’s crucial for me to listen to Dale and the tone in his voice emphasising the speed change and the need to keep the car neat and tidy.
David Evans
What are we in for? If last year's anything to go by, it'll be the second fastest round of the World Rally Championship season.
Finland is, of course, the quickest – but Poland is very different in nature to what comes in Jyvaskyla next month. The roads in Mikolajki are generally some of the softest and sandiest of the year and that means two things, firstly, less tyre wear than usual and secondly, deep ruts, especially on the second run of roads – remember we had stages cancelled for just this reason across the border in Lithuania three years ago.
Midday services will be busy, busy, busy here with plenty of set-up changes (raising the ride height is a given) in preparation for a very different and very rutted road on the second run through the stages.
The only thing which makes those ruts worse is the rain. There is rain forecast during the event and the organisers will be keeping a close eye on the conditions following the 2013 event when Poland ran as a European Rally Championship round and came close to cancelling stages after course cars got stuck in the mud.
The main concern centres on Sunday's two stages which are among the event's softest.
But when it's dry, it's quick. And very quick. Running through fields and generally more open ground, there's a larger margin for error than usual and this encourages the drivers to push harder than ever and take more risk. And because the roads are so quick this week, we can expect the small gaps to be even smaller than ever.
Finland is, of course, the quickest – but Poland is very different in nature to what comes in Jyvaskyla next month. The roads in Mikolajki are generally some of the softest and sandiest of the year and that means two things, firstly, less tyre wear than usual and secondly, deep ruts, especially on the second run of roads – remember we had stages cancelled for just this reason across the border in Lithuania three years ago.
Midday services will be busy, busy, busy here with plenty of set-up changes (raising the ride height is a given) in preparation for a very different and very rutted road on the second run through the stages.
The only thing which makes those ruts worse is the rain. There is rain forecast during the event and the organisers will be keeping a close eye on the conditions following the 2013 event when Poland ran as a European Rally Championship round and came close to cancelling stages after course cars got stuck in the mud.
The main concern centres on Sunday's two stages which are among the event's softest.
But when it's dry, it's quick. And very quick. Running through fields and generally more open ground, there's a larger margin for error than usual and this encourages the drivers to push harder than ever and take more risk. And because the roads are so quick this week, we can expect the small gaps to be even smaller than ever.
David Evans
Before we go any further, before we even get started, actually, have a look at this. This is what Rally Poland is all about. Tighten those belts…
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This is how the field stands right now:
1 Neuville
2 Latvala +0.7s
3 Ogier +1.5s
4 Tanak +2.2s
5 Lappi +5.5s
6 Lefebvre +9.0s
= Paddon +9.0s
8 Mikkelsen +10.0s
9 Sordo +11.1s
10 Suninen +11.9s
Ostberg is 11th, Hanninen is 12th thanks in large part to a 10s jump-start penalty from last night's superspecial, superspecial winner Elfyn Evans is already down to 13th and saying his DMACK Ford felt "like a sledge" in the wet on SS2 and Craig Breen is 18th and concerned his Citroen's transmission is broken - he was in two-wheel-drive mode earlier.
1 Neuville
2 Latvala +0.7s
3 Ogier +1.5s
4 Tanak +2.2s
5 Lappi +5.5s
6 Lefebvre +9.0s
= Paddon +9.0s
8 Mikkelsen +10.0s
9 Sordo +11.1s
10 Suninen +11.9s
Ostberg is 11th, Hanninen is 12th thanks in large part to a 10s jump-start penalty from last night's superspecial, superspecial winner Elfyn Evans is already down to 13th and saying his DMACK Ford felt "like a sledge" in the wet on SS2 and Craig Breen is 18th and concerned his Citroen's transmission is broken - he was in two-wheel-drive mode earlier.
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And while the World Rally Car field has made it through largely unscathed so far, there's been trouble further back.
We've had two stages - one short, one very short, one last night and one very early this morning - and the theme so far is wet weather and unpleasant levels of mud.
Good morning and welcome to Autosport Race Centre Live's coverage of Rally Poland.
By: Matt Beer
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