Sebastien Ogier’s hopes of wrapping up the title at home all but evaporated yesterday, with Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala taking the lead of Rally France while Andreas Mikkelsen, in a third Polo R, and Citroen Total Abu Dhabi driver Kris Meeke completed the top three at the end of day one.
Volkswagen confirmed that a faulty gearbox sensor was responsible for the lack of power that cost Ogier more than four minutes on the second stage.
Ogier began the stage 0.3sec off the lead, but dropped to 40th position when the engine in his Polo R World Rally Car kept cutting power.
The Frenchman’s woes were compounded soon afterwards, when co-driver Julien Ingrassia mistakenly checked them into Stage three early, ignoring the fact that the rally itinerary had been delayed. The error earned them a four-minute penalty.
Team boss Jost Capito said: “The problem on stage two was down to the gearbox shift sensor. It was giving the wrong data to the engine, which meant Seb did not have power when he was not on wide-open throttle.
“It’s not a problem we’ve experienced before, and we will send the unit off for analysis. In service the sensor was changed and we replaced the gearbox as well as a precaution.”
Capito felt Ingrassia’s efforts to find a solution to the sensor problem contributed to the subsequent early check-in.
“They did not have any time in between the two stages, so during SS2 Julien was looking and checking the [instruction] manual and dash display, and afterwards also on the road section. Stage two was four minutes delayed but they did not take this delay to Stage three,” he explained.
“If it is four minutes or eight minutes it’s not a big deal, so I think they are happy that both things happened on the same event and not over two events.
“Julien knows that he doesn’t do mistakes but that mistakes under these circumstances can happen.”
Ogier summed up a miserable day, saying: “Terrible. First the gearbox sensor, then the penalty and finally a broken damper. Everything has happened today. Now we have to focus on the Power Stage.”
Mid-way through the event, Mikkelsen trimmed Latvala’s lead to just two-tenths of a second after claiming his second stage victory of the opening leg in stage four.
The Norwegian was 0.1sec faster than Ogier and 0.5sec quicker than Latvala as Volkswagen claimed its second 1-2-3 finish.
“A clean stage but it was a bit more slippery than this morning as the road warms up,” said Mikkelsen.
Meeke, third overall in his Citroen DS3, was impressive throughout the day. The Abu Dhabi driver said: “I thought we had a problem on the last stage (SS5), but here it wasn’t so bad. It’s been a good day so far, I couldn’t have done much more.”
However, things were not so good for his Citroen team-mate, Mads Ostberg, who struggled with the car on special stages five and six.
But he ended the day sounding far more chipper than he did after stage six, when he reported a mechanical problem.
“There is definitely something wrong, I can feel it in here, but we haven’t lost so much time and I’m happy about that. I’ve cooled myself down which was necessary.
“It’s a beautiful event, the stages today have been really great and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” He ended the day fifth.
Crews will regroup today to tackle a further seven stages before the final four tests on Sunday.
