SS12: Ogier flies to first stage victory

Sebastien Ogier has moved ahead of Petter Solberg into third place after going fastest through the repeated Coiluna test.

In doing so, the Citroen pilot ended Jari-Matti Latvala’s sequence of stage wins, albeit by a slender margin of 0.4s. Ogier was also 1.1s faster than Mikko Hirvonen and is now 2.1s behind the Ford Fiesta-driving Finn in the overall standings.

“It was a nice stage, I’m happy with the car and the feeling is better than yesterday,” said Ogier. “We have changed something on the balance and helps me a lot.”

Hirvonen said: “I’m happy with that. It’s a fantastic fight. We have to go so on the limit. It’s so close with Petter and Ogier. I really have to push hard.”

After setting the fourth fastest time on the stage, Solberg said: “It worked well. I did one mistake and lost maybe two seconds. I’m trying and I know I can beat Loeb on this rally. I just need to get a little bit of luck on my side.”

Loeb revealed the stage surface was slippery in places and admitted he had expected to lose some time after going fifth quickest: “For sure I lose some time, that’s normal. Some parts were okay, some slippery. I was pushing hard and I know we will continue to lose. We need a minimum lead of 20 seconds tonight so we try.”

Standings after SS12: