WRC Rally Italy
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Paddon is in and fastest by 0.5s over Tanak.
He's yet to to win a stage on this rally despite leading. He could well be beaten again by the drivers further back, with the stage likely to clean.
He's yet to to win a stage on this rally despite leading. He could well be beaten again by the drivers further back, with the stage likely to clean.
Crash
More trouble for Sordo. He had turbo problems at the end of the last loop, and despite having a service between, his split in this stage is 44.4s down on Tanak at that point. He's down on power.
David Evans
SS7 is underway shortly. Here's your stage guide from Jari-Matti Latvala.
SS7 Monte Olia (9.32 miles)
"This is the second stage which is coming back to this rally, so this is the other one where our experience can maybe pay a little bit. It’s a long time, however, since I drove Monte Olia in this direction – 10 years!
"Like the first one, there are a lot of blind corners and a lot of rhythm changes when we are coming in and out of the trees.
"You have to be so precise with the car in this stage, there are rocks on the inside, so you have to be careful where you are cutting and then you cannot slide wide because there are more rocks waiting on the outside of the road. It’s narrow, slippery and really tough.
"As well as that, I think this is the stage where we are going to see the biggest cleaning effect. There’s a lot of loose on the surface in here."
SS7 Monte Olia (9.32 miles)
"This is the second stage which is coming back to this rally, so this is the other one where our experience can maybe pay a little bit. It’s a long time, however, since I drove Monte Olia in this direction – 10 years!
"Like the first one, there are a lot of blind corners and a lot of rhythm changes when we are coming in and out of the trees.
"You have to be so precise with the car in this stage, there are rocks on the inside, so you have to be careful where you are cutting and then you cannot slide wide because there are more rocks waiting on the outside of the road. It’s narrow, slippery and really tough.
"As well as that, I think this is the stage where we are going to see the biggest cleaning effect. There’s a lot of loose on the surface in here."
Dust-friendly three minute gaps between drivers today, if you're wondering why the gaps between cars is fairly sizeable.
Stopwatch
Tanak is just over 10s adrift of fellow M-Sport Fiesta driver Mads Ostberg in the overall order heading into this stage, and tops this test so far. He's 0.5s quicker than Neuville. Can he take any time from Ostberg?
Rally leader Paddon and Sordo are both into the stage now. Paddon is fastest at the first split.
Rally leader Paddon and Sordo are both into the stage now. Paddon is fastest at the first split.
Stopwatch
Tanak could be a dark horse here, he's 2s up on Ogier at the final split.
Stopwatch
Neuville is in and 1.6s quicker than Ogier on this stage.
Latvala completes, and he's 0.1s slower than Neuville.
Latvala completes, and he's 0.1s slower than Neuville.
Stopwatch
Ogier completes the stage in 10m03.3s. We'll be interested to see Neuville's final split.
David Evans
Speaking of Neuville, David Evans caught him in the previous service halt:
Thierry Neuville admitted he started the day in an aggressive mood and he intends to remain there for the rest of Friday.
“I knew it would be difficult coming from second on the road, so I knew we had to attack,” he said. “I pushed hard and I was aggressive with the cuts, we were really cutting a lot. I took some risks, sometimes when we were in the cut I was thinking 'Do we want to be in here?' but it was OK.
“For me, [Sebastien] Ogier got the tyre choice wrong for this morning. We had two hards for the front in Tergu and you need them there – it’s so abrasive.”
Ogier disagreed, but admitted the gap between himself and the Belgian (18 seconds and two places in the classification) was down to more than just the difference in running first and second on the road.
Thierry Neuville admitted he started the day in an aggressive mood and he intends to remain there for the rest of Friday.
“I knew it would be difficult coming from second on the road, so I knew we had to attack,” he said. “I pushed hard and I was aggressive with the cuts, we were really cutting a lot. I took some risks, sometimes when we were in the cut I was thinking 'Do we want to be in here?' but it was OK.
“For me, [Sebastien] Ogier got the tyre choice wrong for this morning. We had two hards for the front in Tergu and you need them there – it’s so abrasive.”
Ogier disagreed, but admitted the gap between himself and the Belgian (18 seconds and two places in the classification) was down to more than just the difference in running first and second on the road.
Stopwatch
Latvala has reached the first split and he's 1.3s slower than Ogier. That makes Neuville's time seem even odder. Strange split times.
Stopwatch
Second split is in and good news for Neuville. At that point, he's 0.1s up on Ogier so he's recovered that lost time to the Frenchman already.
Latvala is into the stage and Ogier past the second split. We're waiting for Neuville's time to see if he's just dropped time in the first split or whether he has an issue.
Stopwatch
Ogier has reached the first split in 3m20.2s, but there could be trouble for Neuville. At the same point, he is 9.2s down.
We should also catchup with WRC2, which is ever so slightly confusing this weekend.
Regular WRC2 competitor and factory M-sport driver Eric Camilli appears to be leading the way, but he isn’t registered to score points in the championship on this event.
Instead, Jan Kopecky – Skoda’ works driver – leads by 24s after SS5 over fellow Fabia R5 pilot Ole Christian Veiby. Fabio Andolfi (Hyundai i20 R5) is third. The Italian is only five seconds adrift of Veiby.
Regular WRC2 competitor and factory M-sport driver Eric Camilli appears to be leading the way, but he isn’t registered to score points in the championship on this event.
Instead, Jan Kopecky – Skoda’ works driver – leads by 24s after SS5 over fellow Fabia R5 pilot Ole Christian Veiby. Fabio Andolfi (Hyundai i20 R5) is third. The Italian is only five seconds adrift of Veiby.
Just a couple of quick round-ups before they become irrelevant at the end of this stage!
This weekend marks the second round of the Junior World Rally Championship, which is hotly contested with drives in a WRC2 R5 car on offer with the DMACK team in 2018.
Nil Solans won the opening round in Corsica, and leads Rally Italy after five special stages. However, his lead is just 1.4s over Sebastien Loeb-prodigy Terry Folb.
Irishman Rob Duggan, reigning Junior British Rally champion, lies third, 16.3s off the pace. However, he set the fastest time on SS3, his first in JWRC, and instantly dedicated it to Donal O’Brien.
The Irish rally competitor died at the age of 46 after being involved in a collision with a car while out on his push bike in May. His touching dedication will be warmly received by those in Ireland.
This weekend marks the second round of the Junior World Rally Championship, which is hotly contested with drives in a WRC2 R5 car on offer with the DMACK team in 2018.
Nil Solans won the opening round in Corsica, and leads Rally Italy after five special stages. However, his lead is just 1.4s over Sebastien Loeb-prodigy Terry Folb.
Irishman Rob Duggan, reigning Junior British Rally champion, lies third, 16.3s off the pace. However, he set the fastest time on SS3, his first in JWRC, and instantly dedicated it to Donal O’Brien.
The Irish rally competitor died at the age of 46 after being involved in a collision with a car while out on his push bike in May. His touching dedication will be warmly received by those in Ireland.
Green flag
Sebastien Ogier is into our stage. He's sweeping the road, still.
Quote
Only a few minutes to go then, and still so much to catchup on. First, we better tell you about the stage we're about to launch into. Here's the man with the perpetual starter motor, Jari-Matti Latvala, to run you through:
SS2/6 Terranova (13.04 miles)
"Terranova is the first of two stages coming back to the route for the first time since 2013. This gives us a bit of a chance ahead of the some of the guys who haven’t been competing for quite so long – the other stages have all been used in recent years.
"Having said that, there are a few places in this stage where I haven't competed before – it’s been changed around a little bit.
"There are lots of junctions and a lot of blind crests. It’s much more of a technical stage than a really quick one. I’m glad to see this one back on the itinerary."
SS2/6 Terranova (13.04 miles)
"Terranova is the first of two stages coming back to the route for the first time since 2013. This gives us a bit of a chance ahead of the some of the guys who haven’t been competing for quite so long – the other stages have all been used in recent years.
"Having said that, there are a few places in this stage where I haven't competed before – it’s been changed around a little bit.
"There are lots of junctions and a lot of blind crests. It’s much more of a technical stage than a really quick one. I’m glad to see this one back on the itinerary."
David Evans
As usual, Rallies Editor David Evans has been flat out in the service park. Hayden Paddon was next on the list:
Rally leader Hayden Paddon admitted he was surprised to find himself in the lead after failing to post a single quickest time through the first loop. The Hyundai star flatly refused to make any early predictions based on the opening morning.
Offering a well-trodden line in Kiwi deference (straight out of the Kieran Read or Richie McCaw book) he said: “Ah look, we’re not going to get too excited about the first morning.
“We have a plan and we’re sticking to it. There’s such a long way to go in this event…”
Paddon would know that better than most. Remember two years ago? End of the Coiluna stage with a gearbox problem that cost him his chance of a maiden win?
Rarely have the words “It’s broken” hit home so hard. Hayden followed that up later that evening with the immortal line: “I don’t want to be a drama queen, but it ripped my heart out.”
As well as quotes about leading the seventh round of the WRC, Seb Marshall’s presence in the car meant an opportunity for meaningful comment on Britain’s general election result. Not going to tell you what Seb said though, suffice to say his political persuasion is shared by Autosport. Or David Evans, at least.
Rally leader Hayden Paddon admitted he was surprised to find himself in the lead after failing to post a single quickest time through the first loop. The Hyundai star flatly refused to make any early predictions based on the opening morning.
Offering a well-trodden line in Kiwi deference (straight out of the Kieran Read or Richie McCaw book) he said: “Ah look, we’re not going to get too excited about the first morning.
“We have a plan and we’re sticking to it. There’s such a long way to go in this event…”
Paddon would know that better than most. Remember two years ago? End of the Coiluna stage with a gearbox problem that cost him his chance of a maiden win?
Rarely have the words “It’s broken” hit home so hard. Hayden followed that up later that evening with the immortal line: “I don’t want to be a drama queen, but it ripped my heart out.”
As well as quotes about leading the seventh round of the WRC, Seb Marshall’s presence in the car meant an opportunity for meaningful comment on Britain’s general election result. Not going to tell you what Seb said though, suffice to say his political persuasion is shared by Autosport. Or David Evans, at least.
David Evans
David Evans has a brilliant anecdote from Finn Jari-Matti Latvala in service:
With typical precision, Jari-Matti Latvala offered a detailed explanation of his decision to leave his engine running when his Toyota Yaris WRC arrived in service at lunchtime today.
“The starter motor is broken,” he said. “If it stops, it cannot be started again, so sorry, I have to leave engine on.”
Presumably if the situation was as bad as he said it was, he wouldn’t have made service, because the car wouldn’t have re-started when he switched it off in the morning.
“When I was competing on the 2008 Rally Argentina, I had a heavy landing,” he said. “The car didn’t start after that and I had to retire from the rally. All the time after that, when I have heavy landing then I wait for the road section afterwards and I take some speed on the road and I switch off the car. This I did today and I have to [bump] start it. This is how I know.
"To be honest, this affected me quite a lot – all of the time I am coming into the junctions worrying that if I spin and stall then it could be the game over.”
With typical precision, Jari-Matti Latvala offered a detailed explanation of his decision to leave his engine running when his Toyota Yaris WRC arrived in service at lunchtime today.
“The starter motor is broken,” he said. “If it stops, it cannot be started again, so sorry, I have to leave engine on.”
Presumably if the situation was as bad as he said it was, he wouldn’t have made service, because the car wouldn’t have re-started when he switched it off in the morning.
“When I was competing on the 2008 Rally Argentina, I had a heavy landing,” he said. “The car didn’t start after that and I had to retire from the rally. All the time after that, when I have heavy landing then I wait for the road section afterwards and I take some speed on the road and I switch off the car. This I did today and I have to [bump] start it. This is how I know.
"To be honest, this affected me quite a lot – all of the time I am coming into the junctions worrying that if I spin and stall then it could be the game over.”
Information
There's just under 10 minutes until our next stage, so here's a starting order and a list of who has taken which tyres:
Running order:
Ogier
Neuville
Latvala
Tanak
Paddon
Sordo
Hanninen
Mikkelsen
Ostberg
Lappi
Tyres:
Five hard: Ogier, Neuville, Paddon, Sordo, Latvala, Lappi, Hanninen
Six hard: Tanak, Mikkelsen
Four hard, two soft: Ostberg
Running order:
Ogier
Neuville
Latvala
Tanak
Paddon
Sordo
Hanninen
Mikkelsen
Ostberg
Lappi
Tyres:
Five hard: Ogier, Neuville, Paddon, Sordo, Latvala, Lappi, Hanninen
Six hard: Tanak, Mikkelsen
Four hard, two soft: Ostberg
Autosport
Hello and welcome back to our Rally Italy live coverage. We start with a few updates from service, including that Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle have joined the list of retirees.
Autosport
Here's our comprehensive report after SS5 of Rally Italy. Rejoin us again at 1415hrs for the afternoon loop of the action. 
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SS5:
1 Lappi 9m06.3s
2 Ostberg +3.3
3 Paddon +3.7
4 Tanak +4.4
5 Hanninen +4.7
6 Neuville +5.4
After SS5 overall:
1 Paddon 46m55.7s
2 Hanninen +4.3s
3 Ostberg +4.4s
4 Tanak +14.7s
6 Latvala +21.8s
7 Ogier +37.7s
8 Mikkelsen +53.4s
9 Sordo +1m14.5s
10 Lappi +1m18.8s
1 Lappi 9m06.3s
2 Ostberg +3.3
3 Paddon +3.7
4 Tanak +4.4
5 Hanninen +4.7
6 Neuville +5.4
After SS5 overall:
1 Paddon 46m55.7s
2 Hanninen +4.3s
3 Ostberg +4.4s
4 Tanak +14.7s
6 Latvala +21.8s
7 Ogier +37.7s
8 Mikkelsen +53.4s
9 Sordo +1m14.5s
10 Lappi +1m18.8s
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"Tell Tommi five gears is enough," says Lappi at stage end. That is undoubtedly the performance of the season so far, and that will be talked about for a few years to come. The Finn, wow.
Stopwatch
WOAH! LAPPI GOES QUICKEST.
That's unbelievable. HE HAS NO SECOND GEAR! Outrageous.
That's unbelievable. HE HAS NO SECOND GEAR! Outrageous.
Stopwatch
In all that drama, we've got some more! Ostberg goes quickest through the stage.
He's 0.4s quicker than Paddon and that puts him INTO THIRD AHEAD OF TANAK.
Big changes in the leaderboard thanks to Meeke and Ostberg here.
He's 0.4s quicker than Paddon and that puts him INTO THIRD AHEAD OF TANAK.
Big changes in the leaderboard thanks to Meeke and Ostberg here.
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Meeke has arrived at the stage end, the roof is dented and the right-hand side and the rear is crumpled. He doesn't want to talk at stage end.
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Mikkelsen completes, 6.8s slower than Paddon.
"It's getting better and better I'm learning the car and how to drive it," he says. "I have to change my driving style quite a lot and that doesn't happen over three stages."
"It's getting better and better I'm learning the car and how to drive it," he says. "I have to change my driving style quite a lot and that doesn't happen over three stages."
If you're just joining us, Hayden Paddon has took the lead after erstwhile leader Kris Meeke has gone off in this stage. Hanninen now second, Tanak third.
Meeke has stopped again in the stage.
Meeke has stopped again in the stage.
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Hanninen is respectful of Meeke who pulled over to let him past and didn't cost him time.
"When we caught him, he pulled over," says Meeke. "Thanks for that. Respect."
"When we caught him, he pulled over," says Meeke. "Thanks for that. Respect."
Stopwatch
Hanninen completes, one second slower than Paddon, and that means Paddon leads the rally by 4.3s over Hanninen.
Meeke is going slowly, Citroen team-mate Mikkelsen has now passed him on the stage.
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Paddon completes the stage, quickest by 0.7s. But that should be enough to give him the rally lead with Meeke's off. The only rival to that could be Hanninen, but he's slower than Paddon on the splits.
"Today is about driving safely," says Paddon. "Because of the hole in the car it's making a lot of noise and it was difficult to hear the pacenotes."
"Today is about driving safely," says Paddon. "Because of the hole in the car it's making a lot of noise and it was difficult to hear the pacenotes."
By: Matt Beer
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