SS11: Ogier maintains his grip

Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier continued his stage winning form on Saturday’s opening test, going fastest in his Polo R to stretch his rally lead over Mikko Hirvonen to 25.3sec.

Citroen DS3 driver Hirvonen and Ogier were closely matched through much of the monster 50km Nambucca, the longest stage of the rally, before Ogier pulled 5.3sec clear in the closing section.

“It almost felt like he was playing with us,” said Hirvonen. “Our split times showed we were one second up, then one second down, back and forth like that for most of the stage, and then he pulled three seconds in one split. We had a near miss towards the end and then took it a bit more cautiously. All we can do now is try to keep the pressure on him and see what happens.”

Ogier, who is following Hirvonen through today’s stages, denied that he was toying with his rival. “I was not playing with him, but I did try to copy his rhythm and not push too much. That was enough,” he said.

Ogier’s team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was third fastest to edge closer to Kris Meeke in fourth overall. Latvala reduced the gap from 19.6sec to 14.5sec. “It’s a good fight,” the Finn acknowledged, “but it’s important to stay cool. The car is understeering. We made some changes to the set-up and it’s not done what I had hoped, so I think we’ll change it back to how it was before.”

The stage brought no significant change to the slender gap between third placed Thierry Neuville and Meeke behind. Neuville was fourth-fastest in his Ford Fiesta RS, with Meeke, watching Thierry’s splits, just 2.2sec slower in his Citroen to remain less than three seconds adrift in the overall standings.

“I tried to manage my pace the whole way through,” said Meeke. “A little bit of understeer in the slow sections but otherwise no issues at all. I’m happy.”

With clear instructions from Citroen to get his car to the finish, Meeke dismissed the prospect of a fight for third. “There is no battle with Thierry,” he said.

Ford Fiesta RS driver Mads Ostberg was sixth fastest, and feeling far more positive about his performance than he had on Friday. “The feeling was not so bad. Quite a slippery stage in places, but the car feels better and it’s a lot more enjoyable. The pace notes too were really good in here,” he said.