Hyundai Motorsport is embroiled in a tantalisingly close fight for victory after another dramatic and exciting day at Rally Poland, the eighth round of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship.
Thierry Neuville has marginally extended his overall lead of the rally to 3.1 seconds from M-Sport’s Ott Tanak, with 25.5 seconds separating the Belgian from his Kiwi team-mate Hayden Paddon, who has moved up to third.
Paddon and co-driver Seb Marshall arguably enjoyed the most competitive and trouble-free day of any of the WRC crews. The Anglo-Kiwi pairing picked up three stage wins in total, and benefitted from Jari-Matti Latvala’s retirement to move into the podium positions. With a healthy gap to Sébastien Ogier in fourth, they will be seeking their first top-three finish of 2017 on Sunday.
Paddon said: “We have had far better conditions today, especially this morning, and that gave us a more even playing field and more confidence in the car. We could really set about getting down to business and just enjoying the driving.
“We took a stage win in Goldap and were looking solid in fourth place with big margins ahead and behind us. We were focused only on securing that position, which would be so important for the championship. We added two more stage wins in the afternoon and moved up into third overall after Jari-Matti’s problem. I am sorry for him, but at the same time I am happy to have the chance for a podium here, which would be an unexpected, but very welcome result.”
All three Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team crews are firmly inside the top-five with Dani Sordo holding fifth. The positions alone don’t tell the full story of a day where the lead changed hands on four separate occasions, with plenty of drama up and down the field.
Saturday’s itinerary took in a loop of four stages, run once in the morning and again in the afternoon. The day culminated, as on Friday, with a Super Special at the Mikolajki Arena.
A steady start for the Hyundai Motorsport crews saw Neuville relinquish control of the rally mid-way through the opening loop. He fought back with a stage win in SS14 (Kruklanki) to end the morning with a narrow 1.3-second advantage.
Paddon also picked up a stage win in the morning loop before adding two more in the afternoon. Drama for Jari-Matti Latvala saw the Kiwi move up to third after SS16 (Pozezdrze) as Neuville and Tanak hit trouble.
Neuville dropped 15 seconds of time with a rear-left puncture, which caused bodywork damage, leaving him with work to do. As Tanak battled his own problems, the Belgian crew claimed second in SS17 (Goldap) and first in SS18 (Kruklanki) to regain the outright lead, which they extended to 3.1 seconds after the evening’s Super Special.
Four stages make up the final day of Rally Poland, which are run over a total competitive distance of 59.66km.
The brand new 11.15km Orzysz stage gets things underway at 8.10am local time followed by the 18.68km Paprotki stage.
The two tests will be repeated to bring the rally to its conclusion with Paprotki 2 acting as the Power Stage, with the top-five finishers receiving extra Drivers’ Championship points.
Overall Classification after Day Two
1 T. Neuville N. Gilsoul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 2:10:26.3
2 O. Tanak M. Jarveoja Ford Fiesta WRC +3.1
3 H. Paddon S. Marshall Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +25.5
4 S. Ogier J. Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC +1:32.0
5 D. Sordo M. Martí Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +1:43.8
6 T. Suninen M. Markkula Ford Fiesta WRC +2:06.2
7 S. Lefebvre G. Moreau Citroën C3 WRC +2:20.3
8 M. Østberg O. Floene Ford Fiesta WRC +2:45.8
9 E. Evans D. Barritt Ford Fiesta WRC +3:23.1
10 A. Mikkelsen A. Jaeger Citroën C3 WRC +3:34.6
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