Friday midday wrap: Latvala leads for Ford

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala leads Wales Rally GB by 3.3s after the opening three stages of Britain’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship. Sebastien Loeb is holding up the runner-up spot for Citroen with Petter Solberg third in the second works Fiesta.

Latvala moved in front with a sensational time through stage three, having been down in fourth place after two runs following an off-road moment early in the run. “I had a moment in Hafren Sweet Lamb on a slippery right-hander and pushed the tyre off the rim,” said Latvala. “There was a massive vibration after that, I lost concentration and it took the time to get a feeling. I calmed down for Myherin and started to get a nice flow. It was not easy to drive, more slippery than I expected, but I got a good feeling with the car, it’s going well.”

It’s been a strong start to the gravel event for the Ford squad with Latvala’s team-mate Petter Solberg also impressing by going fastest on the opening two runs. The Norwegian is 5.3s adrift of first place after he was unable to maintain his sequence of stage wins through Myherin, although he was at a loss to explain exactly why. However, he remains confident of a strong result: “I feel very comfortable and it’s going really well.”

Loeb said he was slightly cautious through the first Dyfnant stage, which he completed with the fourth quickest time, but has gradually picked up his pace in his works Citroen DS3 WRC. “The fight with the Fords is really hard so we have to push,” he said. “It’s very slippery, you have some big slides and it’s difficult to keep the car on the road.”

Mads Ostberg is fourth in his privateer Fiesta. The Norwegian reckoned he could have been closer to the leading pace had he not slowed slightly on stage two when he feared a puncture. He also said his decision to use his old pace notes for stage three hit his confidence.

Mikko Hirvonen is fifth in the second works Citroen with Ott Tanak sixth, despite reporting a powersteering glitch in his M-Sport Fiesta. Evgeny Novikov is seventh, Thierry Neuville eighth, Matthew Wilson ninth and Martin Prokop, who has no working sixth gear, 10th. Chris Atkinson is the leading MINI John Cooper Works WRC driver in 11th. Sebastien Ogier is 12th overall for Volkswagen Motorsport with Nasser Al-Attiyah 13th for the Qatar World Rally Team.

Craig Breen leads the Super 2000 World Rally Championship division from Yazeed Al-Rajhi and newcomer Tom Cave. However, there was frustration for title chasers P-G Andersson and Hayden Paddon. Andersson, took a wheel off his PROTON Satria-Neo on stage two, while Paddon dropped out of the lead when his Skoda Fabia lost all power due to an ignition problem on stage 12, losing more than 12 minutes in the process.

Although it has stayed dry this morning, overnight rain ensured the high-speed gravel tests were slippery with inconsistent grip levels reported by some drivers. Stage four, the repeat of the 20.48-kilometre Dyfnant test, starts at 13:13hrs local time.