SS19: Wiper issues for Neuville

There were few signs of the torrential rain that hit León last night with blue skies and bright sunshine greeting competitors at the final 4.42km run through the super special at the city’s race circuit.

But in the shade there were a few puddles and they created visibility problems for Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. “Just a small problem with visibility because my wipers weren’t working and I had water on the windscreen,” said the Belgian, who scored his maiden stage win here in 2012.

Jari-Matti Latvala, with whom Neuville went head-to-head in the stage, twice ran wide and lost a few tenths while Andreas Mikkelsen reported that the intercom in his Volkswagen Polo R wasn’t working properly.

Not what you really want with the 55.92km Guanajuatito test up next…..

WRC 2 leader Yuriy Protasov spun his Fiesta R5 – but that wasn’t a problem with a lead of almost 25 minutes over Max Rendina.