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WRC Argentina
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Further up the order, Tanak is the pacesetter on the splits, and rally leader Evans is about to start the stage.
Hanninen loses 25.6s to Bertelli through this stage so the deficit from eighth to ninth grows to 41.4s.
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Now he is on the stage, the delayed Paddon is on the pace - just six tenths off benchmark Tanak at split one.
Hanninen is now 58.9s down on Sordo at split four and 18.7s off Bertelli at split three as his ninth place gets more distant.
Stopwatch
M-Sport was the team on the move on the last stage as Tanak went quickest and grabbed third from Ostberg. Tanak's started this one well too, he's quickest at split one so far by 2.4s over Latvala.
It had looked like a pretty quiet run to the finish for Paddon in a lonely seventh after his roll yesterday morning.
Crash
Paddon has now started, nine minutes after he was supposed to.
The timing system suggests Paddon didn't start the stage when he was scheduled to.
By split two, Bertelli's 11.3s faster than Hanninen and at the next one Hanninen's 45.4s off Sordo. That suggests a pretty big problem.
Yeah, that does look like more problems for Hanninen - he's 6.2s slower than Bertelli, having been catching the Italian privateer whenever his car's actually been healthy.
Hanninen is 13.6s slower than Sordo at the first split.
At the end of the previous stage he was concerned at the car pulling to one side and hoping it was just a puncture.
It's been quite hard to suss Hanninen's situation from split times this weekend. Sometimes he's off the pace because the engine's sickly, sometimes he's just not been confident or has been over-cautious.
All in all, it's not proving to be a great trip to Argentina, where he won in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2010.
At the end of the previous stage he was concerned at the car pulling to one side and hoping it was just a puncture.
It's been quite hard to suss Hanninen's situation from split times this weekend. Sometimes he's off the pace because the engine's sickly, sometimes he's just not been confident or has been over-cautious.
All in all, it's not proving to be a great trip to Argentina, where he won in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge in 2010.
Technical progress! We have split times on this stage! Well, one from Sordo at least. That's a 100% increase on earlier.
Green flag
Sordo and Hanninen have started the stage. There's a chance of both gaining a place on this one, Sordo into 10th at the expense of TIdemand and Hanninen back past Bertelli to eighth.
David Evans
Remember Jari-Matti Latvala’s crash last year? The one where he cut that very, very fast left on Los Gigantes? Well, Autosport can reveal J-ML didn’t cut it this time around this morning…
“I saw the stone,” said Latvala, “and I looked at it, but I thought I didn’t want to cut it – even though this is one place where the road has been regarded quite well and the stone is almost covered now.
"I won’t cut it this afternoon either; you never know if the other drivers have dug out the rock a little bit and I wouldn’t want something like that to happen again [in that corner] even though we’re in a different car this time.”
Latvala spent lunchtime service scratching his head over a new centre diff set-up for the afternoon. He’s struggling to get the Yaris WRC turned in on the faster corners and is worried about what the extra steering input could do to the tyres this afternoon.
“I saw the stone,” said Latvala, “and I looked at it, but I thought I didn’t want to cut it – even though this is one place where the road has been regarded quite well and the stone is almost covered now.
"I won’t cut it this afternoon either; you never know if the other drivers have dug out the rock a little bit and I wouldn’t want something like that to happen again [in that corner] even though we’re in a different car this time.”
Latvala spent lunchtime service scratching his head over a new centre diff set-up for the afternoon. He’s struggling to get the Yaris WRC turned in on the faster corners and is worried about what the extra steering input could do to the tyres this afternoon.
However, a warning. This stage was a nightmare for communications on its first running earlier today - getting information back from the stage ends was sporadic at best and even the timing and tracking system lost track.
So bear with us, this might be a case of filling time with pictures of retro rally cars and David Evans's international escapades while waiting for cars to reach the finish so we can fill in the blanks.
So bear with us, this might be a case of filling time with pictures of retro rally cars and David Evans's international escapades while waiting for cars to reach the finish so we can fill in the blanks.
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SS14 Los Gigantes – Cantera El Condor (24.03 miles)
The longest stage of the event and the one Kris Meeke reckons sports by far the most spectacular views – whcih is some claim on this rally…
This stretch of road isn't just a World Rally Championship speciality either, it's featured on the Dakar route as well. Running, like all of today's stages north-west of Villa Carlos Paz, this test runs through some really remote and barren countryside.
The first half climbs to just short of 2000 metres via sandy and bumpy roads which will inevitably dig out for the second pass.
Once over the top, the road gets quicker and more flowing. One of the problems with the faster second half is the lack of reference points. During the recce they will have passed numerous cows and horses, but they don't make for great reference points – they might have moved since Tuesday…
The longest stage of the event and the one Kris Meeke reckons sports by far the most spectacular views – whcih is some claim on this rally…
This stretch of road isn't just a World Rally Championship speciality either, it's featured on the Dakar route as well. Running, like all of today's stages north-west of Villa Carlos Paz, this test runs through some really remote and barren countryside.
The first half climbs to just short of 2000 metres via sandy and bumpy roads which will inevitably dig out for the second pass.
Once over the top, the road gets quicker and more flowing. One of the problems with the faster second half is the lack of reference points. During the recce they will have passed numerous cows and horses, but they don't make for great reference points – they might have moved since Tuesday…
Next up: the rally's longest stage, starting in just under 10 minutes.
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SS13 summary:
* M-Sport first and second with Tanak and Ogier...
* ...so Tanak takes third from over-cautious Ostberg and Ogier closes in too
* Evans has a scare with some damaged bodywork but inches his lead back up to 45.5s
* M-Sport first and second with Tanak and Ogier...
* ...so Tanak takes third from over-cautious Ostberg and Ogier closes in too
* Evans has a scare with some damaged bodywork but inches his lead back up to 45.5s
Information
SS13 RESULTS
Leading stage times:
1 Tanak 10m47.9s
2 Ogier +1.2s
3 Meeke +1.8s
4 Evans +3.2s
5 Neuville +4.6s
6 Latvala +5.4s
7 Paddon +9.4s
8 Ostberg +11.9s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Evans
2 Neuville +45.5s
3 Tanak +53.8s
4 Ostberg +1m01.7s
5 Ogier +1m09.6s
6 Latvala +1m27.9s
Leading stage times:
1 Tanak 10m47.9s
2 Ogier +1.2s
3 Meeke +1.8s
4 Evans +3.2s
5 Neuville +4.6s
6 Latvala +5.4s
7 Paddon +9.4s
8 Ostberg +11.9s
Overall leaderboard:
1 Evans
2 Neuville +45.5s
3 Tanak +53.8s
4 Ostberg +1m01.7s
5 Ogier +1m09.6s
6 Latvala +1m27.9s
Meeke is through and only third fastest this time. So it's time for a round-up.
Evans is concerned by an odd noise that leaves him worried about an exhaust issue. It looks like that might be dragging bodywork rather than exhaust.
Leading rallies is certainly stressful.
Leading rallies is certainly stressful.
Evans is third fastest, ahead of Neuville, so his overall lead is 45.5s. There's a bit of bodywork damage to the rally-leading Ford.
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Ostberg says that time loss was because he braked so hard to go carefully through the watersplash where his diffuser was ripped off earlier.
Neuville reveals he had to have a gearbox change in service and is getting used to a different differential now, plus he had a long brake pedal early on that stage.
Not a good stage for Ostberg - he's 11.9s slower than Tanak and sixth fastest of the cars so far, so he falls 7.8s behind Tanak into fourth overall and is now just 7.9s ahead of Ogier.
Solid first split from rally leader Evans, he's 1.5s off pacesetter Ogier at that point.
Ostberg is nearly 10s off the 'works' Fords' pace at the second split, he looks set to drop behind Tanak.
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"It was a good stage," says Ogier. "The car feels better so hopefully we can have some better speed in the afternoon this time. We changed the rear of the car completely. Let's see what we can do on the long one."
Neuville is 4.6s slower than Tanak and 3.4s slower than Ogier - so the Neuville-to-Tanak second-to-third/fourth gap is down to 8.4s. This rally is so, so open... behind Evans.
Stopwatch
Both M-Sport Fords are quicker than Neuville and Ostberg on the splits - that fight for second and third could be closing up.
By the end of the stage, Ogier is slower than Tanak - he loses another 1.2s to his flying team-mate.
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"I hope we've got the car working now," says Tanak. "On this stage it was working really nicely."
Ogier is six tenths quicker than Tanak at split two. That's not a lot given the overall gap between them.
Stopwatch
Tanak comes through with the fastest time so far, 5.4s faster than Latvala. Latvala says he "felt really good" after "some little changes", but the Ford's pace suggests the Toyota won't be getting back in the podium fight yet.
Stopwatch
Looks like Ogier's back on the pace, he's 0.9s faster than Tanak at split one. After his unhappy morning, the champion is 14s behind his team-mate in the fight for fourth.
Stopwatch
Latvala is in, we didn't get his split times but he's fastest at the finish by 4s over Paddon.
Stopwatch
Paddon is in, 11.2s quicker than anyone else so far, but times elsewhere on the stage suggest that won't be the fastest time we see here once the leaders are in.
David Evans
Here's what tyres the drivers have taken for the afternoon:
Evans - 6 softs (DMACK)
Ogier - 4 softs, 1 hard
Tanak and Ostberg - 3 softs, 2 hards
Hyundais - 5 softs
Latvala - 3 softs, 2 hards
Meeke - 4 softs, 2 hards
Evans - 6 softs (DMACK)
Ogier - 4 softs, 1 hard
Tanak and Ostberg - 3 softs, 2 hards
Hyundais - 5 softs
Latvala - 3 softs, 2 hards
Meeke - 4 softs, 2 hards
Stopwatch
The podium combatants are getting cracking on the stage too. We're not getting splits from Latvala's car but Tanak is quickest at split one so far, 4.4s up on Paddon.
By: Matt Beer
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