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SS5: Latvala leads amid more carnage

Rally Argentina

By Franck Drui

9 May 2014 - 22:05

Jari-Matti Latvala powered back into the lead after blitzing Volkswagen Polo R team-mate Sébastien Ogier by more than 18sec in the second pass through the Ascochinga to Agua de Oro stage (SS5).

Latvala took a 17.7sec advantage, but was perhaps a little fortunate. The Finn finished with two chunks of rubber missing from his front left tyre, but the Michelin rubber did its job and remained inflated.

Ogier was an agitated man at the finish. He jumped out of his car to check the back before saying: “The rear tyre was moving a lot. The grip wasn’t good and I lost a lot of time.”

It was a disastrous stage for Hyundai, who lost both i20 cars. Dani Sordo stopped 1km after the start with an engine problem and then Thierry Neuville, who was driving slowly with similar issues, was asked by his team to pull over rather than risk terminal damage.

Andreas Mikkelsen brought the number of World Rally Car retirements to five when he parked his Polo R after 43.90km with what is believed to be an alternator problem.

Pos.	#	Driver	Time	Diff / Prev	Diff / 1st
1.	2	LATVALA	1:57:36.3
2.	1	OGIER	1:57:54.0	+17.7	+17.7
3.	3	MEEKE	1:58:43.7	+49.7	+1:07.4
4.	6	EVANS	2:01:24.4	+2:40.7	+3:48.1
5.	10	KUBICA	2:01:24.6	+0.2	+3:48.3
6.	21	PROKOP	2:01:48.5	+23.9	+4:12.2
7.	9	MIKKELSEN	2:02:56.2	+1:07.7	+5:19.9
8.	7	NEUVILLE	2:03:12.5	+16.3	+5:36.2
9.	40	AL-ATTIYAH	2:03:13.1	+0.6	+5:36.8
10.	32	PROTASOV	2:05:58.3	+2:45.2	+8:22.0
11.	42	DOMINGUEZ	2:08:12.8	+2:14.5	+10:36.5
12.	39	SABA	2:09:19.3	+1:06.5	+11:43.0
13.	41	FUCHS	2:10:35.6	+1:16.3	+12:59.3
14.	35	KETOMAA	2:11:51.0	+1:15.4	+14:14.7
15.	46	ZALDIVAR	2:12:19.5	+28.5	+14:43.2
16.	36	GILBERT	2:15:36.3	+3:16.8	+18:00.0
17.	8	SORDO	2:17:08.1	+1:31.8	+19:31.8
18.	4	OSTBERG	2:17:28.5	+20.4	+19:52.2
19.	5	HIRVONEN	2:17:29.6	+1.1	+19:53.3
20.	72	ALONSO	2:17:43.0	+13.4	+20:06.7