Rally GB Shakedown Stage
Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala shared fastest times for Volkswagen at Thursday morning's Rally GB shakedown stage. The Polo drivers clocked the same time to the tenth of a second on the two-mile Clocaenog test, with Citroen's Kris Meeke three tenths down on the Volkswagen duo on the wet-but-drying stage.
Ogier arrives in Wales having crashed on the final stage of Rally Catalunya while leading, which spoiled an impressive run. Latvala was equally upbeat about the final round of the season - an event he has contested 13 times before. Kris Meeke's fastest run came on his second attempt at the stage. Amazingly, Meeke's codriver on this stage was the outgoing Williams Formula 1 test and development driver Susie Wolff who replaced Paul Nagle for the final shot, where Meeke was 2.9s slower without pacenotes being read to him.
Belgian Thierry Neuville appears to be relishing the absence of pressure after his demotion from the main Hyundai team and was just two tenths down on Meeke and 0.7s ahead of Dani Sordo, the man who's replaced him in the #7 i20 WRC. The third VW was missing from shakedown after Andreas Mikkelsen had to fly to Germany for an unknown medical issue to be checked. Ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica had a difficult start, with gearbox problems striking his RK Ford on his shakedown run.
Rally GB officially gets under way from Llandudno on Thursday evening, with weather a hot topic as Storm Abigail is expected to hit overnight before the arrival of a serious rainstorm on Saturday.
LEADING SHAKEDOWN TIMES:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier VW 2m01.4s
2. Jari-Matti Latvala VW 2m01.4s +0.0s
3. Kris Meeke Citroen 2m01.7s +0.3s
4. Thierry Neuville Hyundai 2m01.9s +0.5s
5. Hayden Paddon Hyundai 2m02.4s +1.0s
6. Dani Sordo Hyundai 2m02.6s +1.2s
7. Mads Ostberg Citroen 2m02.7s +1.3s
8. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford 2m02.8s +1.4s
9. Kevin Abbring Hyundai 2m03.4s +2.0s
10. Stephane Lefebvre Citroen 2m03.6s +2.2s
12th November, 2015