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WRC Argentina

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SS7 RESULTS

Stage times:

1= Evans & Paddon 10m21.1s
3 Ostberg +0.1s
4 Tanak +0.3s
5 Neuville +0.6s
6 Ogier +2.4s

Overall leaderboard:

1 Evans
2 Ostberg +47.7s
3 Latvala +56.9s
4 Tanak +59.4s
5 Neuville +59.5s
6 Ogier +1m00.6s
Paddon's pursuit of Bertelli for seventh overall won't take a lot longer - that gap's down to 14.1s now.

Hanninen is gaining on Bertelli too but not at such a rate. The cautious Toyota driver is now 45s behind Paddon in ninth overall.
Well that's a pretty close stage: Ostberg doesn't win it, he drops in 0.1s slower than joint pacesetters Evans and Paddon.

That means Evans's lead over Ostberg up front stands at 47.7s.
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So is that a sign of Evans playing it a bit safer now? "I'm driving hard but not being too hard on the car," is how the leader describes it.
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It's a shared stage win now - Evans matches Paddon's time. That edges his outright lead up to 56.9s over Latvala, though it may well be different when Ostberg comes through.
Stopwatch
Paddon grabs the provisional fastest time now, 0.3s faster than Tanak - though it's relatively academic as Paddon's morning roll means he's embroiled in a long slog waiting for attrition to get him up the leaderboard.
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Fastest of all at split one is Ostberg. He's having a brilliant first day back in the WRC.

His new privateer programme wasn't put together in time for Monte Carlo, a lost rear wing meant his 2017 debut in Sweden was a bit of a non-event, he missed Mexico as he was busy becoming a father and he missed Corsica because M-Sport didn't have the parts to give him the set-up he wanted. And now he's back in business in Argentina and he's flying.
Onto split two, and Evans is second quickest there, 0.4s off joint pacesetters Paddon and Tanak.
Here's something novel: Rally leader Evans isn't the pacesetter at split one. He's not in any trouble, but he's 2.6s off fastest man Tanak there rather than many seconds faster than everyone like he has been basically everywhere all day.
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Neuville reports that he had to back off a bit on that stage as a hole in the bottom of the car was allowing dust into the cockpit and impeding his vision.
Nice little battle, that.
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Tanak is now the pacesetter on this stage, his completed time is 0.3s faster than Neuville and 2.1s faster than Ogier - and that means he leapfrogs both of them into what is currently second but will become third or fourth depending on Ostberg's pace.
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Neuville comes in fastest so far, 1.8s up on Ogier, and that means he passes the champion to take... third? Fourth? We need a few more cars in to be sure.
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Good news from Latvala: "The problem is all solved. We managed to do a normal stage. Sometimes you phone the engineer and he can tell you what to do."
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Tanak's strong pace is holding off, he's fastest so far at split two by 3.8s. He began this stage at the tail of a fourth-to-sixth group with Ogier and Neuville ahead.
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Meanwhile, Ogier's in terse short-sentence mode, which means the road took a fair bit of cleaning:

"It's difficult. I cannot do more. I'm going as fast as I can. I'm on the limit."
Latvala's pace faded near the end and he comes in 0.6s slower than Ogier, but that's much better than the previous stage.
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Latvala is 2.2s faster than Ogier at split two, that's much more encouraging for the Toyota driver.

And it's Tanak who's quickest of all - by 0.8s over Latvala - at split one now, as he, like Latvala, bounces back a bit on this stage after a tough SS6.
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And now the timing computer wakes up and shows that Ogier and Neuville set equal times up to split one, a second off Latvala's pace there.

Tanak and the very delayed Sordo are on the stage too, then it will be the quite-delayed Paddon and the very dominant Evans.
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Better pace from Latvala so far - he's actually a second quicker than Neuville at split one. But it was later on the stage when he started to run into trouble on the last one.
The sporadic split time situation continues. Ogier is moving at normal pace but not transmitting back the data we want, so we don't know how Latvala compares to him yet.
It's also going to be interesting to see what Neuville gets up to next. The broken damper and puncture that delayed him in the morning were firmly put in the past with his pace on the afternoon opener, as he dismissed Tanak and closed right in to just 0.7s behind Ogier for fourth.
Key thing to watch on this stage is going to be Latvala's pace. He was very concerned at the engine temperature on his Toyota on the last stage and kept having to switch into 'safety' mode to nurse it. He's already lost second place to Ostberg and now has Ogier, Neuville and Tanak bearing down on him.
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SS7 Amboy – Santa Monica (12.70 miles)

Very different in nature from the first stage, this one is super-quick and featured the highest average speed of any of last year’s stages at 72mph.

The road is generally quite wide, bit even the narrower stretches are quick and the finish comes via a brace of spectacular sixth-gear corners.
Green flag
Let's get things back under way - Ogier has roared off the Amboy startline.
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SS6 summary:

* Evans storms into an overall lead of 47.6s with another stage win
* Ostberg takes second from Latvala
* Latvala has engine overheating worries and falls towards Ogier, Neuville and Tanak
* Cautious Tanak loses places to Ogier and Neuville
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SS6 RESULTS

Stage times:

1 Evans 12m35.9s
2 Neuville +8.7s
3 Ostberg +12.0s
4 Sordo +12.9s
5 Ogier +16.5s
6 Tanak +19.3s

Overall leaderboard:

1 Evans
2 Ostberg +47.6s
3 Latvala +53.9s
4 Ogier +58.2s
5 Neuville +58.9s
6 Tanak +59.1s
Bertelli is in, and Paddon has got the gap to the Italian privateer ahead down to 43.2s.
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Ostberg is absolutely thrilled to be second right now.

"It's so nice when you spend so much time out of rallying, you make a plan, you stick to the plan and it's working. It's fantastic. I am really, really happy," he says.

And in case anyone wants to copy his strategy, whatever it may be, he adds: "I will not tell you my secret plan!"
So our 1-2-3 right now is Evans in a DMACK Ford, Ostberg in a private Ford and Latvala in a new Toyota.

WRC 2017 is wonderfully bonkers.
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Hanninen's day isn't getting much better, he's 39.1s off the pace and won't be gaining any ground with that.

"I took it really safely over there, it was that rough," he says. "Everything's still OK."
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Ostberg finishes the stage third fastest, which takes him above Latvala into second overall - which is pretty amazing for a man who is now a privateer making only his second appearance of the season.
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Here's Evans: "It went really well. It's difficult to know if you're doing too much. We have to keep going... Everything's working really well. The tyres feel good."
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Paddon was a minute late out of service while Hyundai finished sorting the effects of his morning roll, so he's now carrying a 10s penalty. He admits he won't be gaining any places on speed now, but he probably can hunt down seventh-placed privateer Bertelli ahead. They were 56.7s apart before the stage and also before Paddon's penalty was applied.
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Evans reaches the stage finish 8.7s faster than Neuville and a massive 23.8s quicker than second-place-overall man Latvala.

That means Evans's outright lead is, astonishingly, up to 53.9s!
But Evans is no longer the fastest man at split one - Ostberg has pipped him by 0.1s.
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Evans is destroying his rivals now... at split two he's 9.5s quicker even than previous pacesetter Neuville!
Sordo is second fastest to Hyundai team-mate Neuville now as he begins the long slog back from last overall (or 15th, as it's also known) following this morning's broken steering arm.

By: Matt Beer

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