SS18: Solberg demotes Ogier

Petter Solberg’s fears that he had climbed as high as possible on Philips Rally Argentina have proved unfounded after he moved ahead of Sebastien Ogier in the overall classification on round five of the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia.

Solberg, who was fastest through the stage in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, is up to seventh position with Ogier unable to fend off the rapid Norwegian in his Super 2000-specification Skoda Fabia.

Out front Sebastien Loeb is one stage away from winning in South America for a seventh time after he safely completed the penultimate test in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Loeb was second fastest to grow his advantage over team-mate Mikko Hirvonen is 15.8s.

Mads Ostberg set the third fastest time in his Adapta Fiesta. Dani Sordo was next up for the factory Ford team with Thierry Neuville fifth quickest and Evgeny Novikov setting the sixth best time.