Paddon takes lead of Rally Argentina
New Zealander Hayden Paddon's leads Rally Argentina into its final day, after Jari-Matti Latvala crashed out on Saturday's penultimate stage after looking likely to win his first back-to-back WRC events as he maintained his lead over Paddon through the opening half of the weekend but the 24-mile Los Gigantes-Cantera El Condor stage claimed his Volkswagen and his hopes of victory. The accident handed Paddon a lead of 29.8s over Sebastien Ogier going into the final day.
Ogier will have three stages on Sunday to try to close on Paddon's Hyundai and win in Argentina for the first time, while Paddon could win his first World Rally championship event. Behind the leading two, Andreas Mikkelsen inherited the final podium place and lies 14.5s adrift of Ogier, holding off the Hyundai of Dani Sordo, who ended the day in fourth.
M-Sport's Mads Ostberg was a distant fifth while home driver Marcos Ligato followed the Norwegian in sixth in an impressive display 4.8s ahead of Thierry Neuville, who ended the day tied with Henning Solberg for seventh overall. Eric Camilli follows Solberg and Neuville in ninth, with Latvala classified 10th in case VW can repair the car for him to rejoin under Rally 2 on Sunday.
In WRC2, Nicholas Fuchs holds the class lead after Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari lost nine minutes following a roll into a field on SS13. Fuchs now leads Hubert Ptaszek by over three minutes. Elfyn Evans returned under Rally 2 rules after his day one retirement, and won four stages in the six-stage afternoon loop.
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS15:
Pos ... Driver .... Team .... Car .... Gap
1 Hayden Paddon Hyundai Motorsport N Hyundai 2h54m45.6s
2 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 29.8s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 44.3s
4 Dani Sordo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m02.0s
5 Mads Ostberg M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m46.2s
6 Marcos Ligato Citroen 8m13.1s
7= Thierry Neuville Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 8m17.9s
7= Henning Solberg Ford 8m17.9s
9 Eric Camilli M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 9m00.3s
10 Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 13m39.8s
23rd April, 2016