After SS5: Mikkelsen flies, Neuville slows

The battle for victory on the Prime Yalta Rally has taken a dramatic twist after Thierry Neuville spun and got stuck for more than two minutes in his Team Peugeot Belgium-Luxembourg 207 Super 2000.

Neuville had been leading by 8.6s starting stage five but hit trouble when he touched a damp patch on a fifth-gear right-hander, spun, nudged a wall and ended up with his car beached on two wheels.

“We had a spin in fifth gear,” said the 22-year-old. “We touched some water and there was no grip on the rear tyres. We only touched the wall a little bit but it took two minutes to come back on the road. We need to take some points now, there is still a long way to go.”

Neuville’s misfortune means Bryan Bouffier now leads Juho Hänninen by 1.0s in the overall standings despite a scare when he had to overtake the ‘0’ and ‘00’ course cars during the stage. His Peugeot 207 Super 2000 also developed a clutch glitch. Jan Kopecký is third after a handful of off-road moments during the stage.

Andreas Mikkelsen was fastest through the stage in his Škoda UK Motorsport Fabia even though he reported having to complete the closing eight kilometres with no working brakes after the puncture he suffered on the previous run damaged the brake cooling mechanism.

Giandomenico Basso, who had been fifth overall in his PROTON Satria Neo Super 2000, was slowed by a powersteering fault and a puncture. His team-mate PG Andersson reached the stage finish with low oil pressure.

Overall positions after SS5: