SS8: Ogier and Neuville in trouble

Big dramas in the opening 15.00km Lesjöfors stage when both Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville hit problems.

Ogier planted his Volkswagen Polo R into a snow bank in a slow corner 3km from the finish. “I missed a little bit the entry point. I wasn’t concentrating. I wanted to push, it was a stupid mistake,” he said.

Ogier dropped 4min 30sec and his chances of points are slim. “I’ll do my best now. I don’t know what is possible but I guess it will be hard.”

Neuville parked his Hyundai by the side of the road 9.5km after the start with what his team described as a damaged wheel carrier on the front right. After working on the car for more than 25 minutes, Neuville restarted but stopped again soon after. He eventually got his car to the end but with the loss of 41 minutes.

Jari-Matti Latvala was fastest by 5.8sec from Volkswagen colleague Andreas Mikkelsen to close the gap in the overall standings to just six-tenths of a second.

“It’s a big day,” said Latvala. “Conditions are more demanding than yesterday. It’s soft and there’s a lot of snow at the side of the ruts, so we really need to keep the car in the tracks.”

Ott Tanak spun his Ford Fiesta RS near the finish in a narrow section. It took the Estonian considerable time to manoeuvre his car back in the right direction and he dropped to fifth behind Mads Ostberg and Mikko Hirvonen in the standings.