SS19: No rush for Ogier

While the fight for second raged behind him, leader Sebastien Ogier consolidated his advantage through this morning’s opening loop of the final leg of Rally Finland.

With a handsome 38.1sec lead after the first two legs, the Frenchman didn’t feel the need to break out of his comfort zone for much of the morning.

He eased his way through three of the four stages in his Volkswagen Polo R – but the exception was the awesome Ouninpohja test, in which he blasted to fastest time.

“My only stage today is Ouninpohja,” said Ogier, before he headed back to mid-leg service in Jyvaskyla with a 31.5sec lead. “The others I just drove through. It’s long been a dream of mine to do Ouninpohja in a World Rally Car and it was amazing.”

Asked whether he would push for extra points in the Power Stage in the Painaa test this afternoon, he grinned: “I’m not sure. I don’t think we need any more points!”

There was little chance for Mads Ostberg and Thierry Neuville to relax as they fought for every fraction of a second in their Ford Fiesta RS cars in the duel behind.

Neuville started with a 0.9sec advantage over Qatar M-Sport team-mate Ostberg, but the Norwegian moved ahead when he won the opening Surkee and Neuville overshot a junction.

The Belgian won the following Leustu stage and reclaimed second in Ouninpohja as Ostberg regretted a cautious approach. But Ostberg won the final Painaa test to move back ahead by 2.8sec.

“It’s difficult to know from stage to stage how to push but on the final test we managed quite well,” said Ostberg.

Neuville was unfazed, saying: “I know there are places where we can go faster this afternoon.”

It’s hard to imagine quite what team director Malcolm Wilson must be thinking as his two drivers blast through the Finnish forests at ten-tenths in pursuit of each other!

Mikko Hirvonen is in no-man’s land in fourth, 25.4sec behind Neuville and 40.2sec ahead of Citroen DS3 team-mate Kris Meeke. Meeke was credited with a 23sec bonus to offset the time he lost when delayed behind the limping Evgeny Novikov yesterday, but the Briton acknowledged he could not fight his colleague.

“I took it steadily. There’s no way I’m going to try to battle Mikko today. I wanted to see everything in the first loop, so now we’ll see what happens this afternoon,” said Meeke. However, his version of ‘steady’ prompted a lurid 360 degree spin in Surkee.

Jarkko Nikara remains sixth in a Mini John Cooper Works, the Finn also unwilling to push too hard. “I didn’t want to take risks because we’re in a good position, he said.

Dani Sordo continues to find the going tough in seventh in his DS3 ahead of Novikov in eighth. WRC 2 drivers Jari Ketomaa and Robert Kubica round off the leaderboard.

WRC2

Ford Fiesta R5 driver Jari Ketomaa remains way out front in WRC 2, the Finn more than 90 seconds ahead of the Citroen DS3 RRC of Robert Kubica. New Zealander Hayden Paddon remains third, 1m32s further back in a Skoda S2000.

WRC 3

Saturday morning’s stages brought no changes to the top positions in WRC 3. Keith Cronin leads, despite a scare on the opening test when an electrical connection came loose on his Citroen’s engine. Sebastien Chardonnet is 1m10.2s adrift in second, with Jussi Vainionpaa 41 seconds further back in third.