Citroen Total Abu Dhabi driver Kris Meeke maintained the lead of Xion Rally Argentina yesterday, but not before suffering a scare on the opening stage in the morning when he spun and lost nearly 15sec to team-mate Mads Ostberg, who is running close behind in second overall.
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Going into the overnight halt, Meeke was 38.6sec ahead of Ostberg with Volkswagen’s Jari-Matti Latvala further back 1min 03.7sec in third. But the Finn is just 25.1sec adrift of second placed Ostberg.
In a dramatic day that saw most crews slow down in very dusty conditions and several others hit by mechanical issues, the penultimate stage – the Capilla Del Monte-San Marcos loop – was cancelled following an accident involving Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon and John Kennard.
Neither crew member was hurt but the incident involved spectators who were immediately assisted by emergency services. As a result of the cancellation of the stage, organisers are expected to allot notional times to all drivers.
Earlier in the morning, Meeke dropped almost 15sec to closest rival Ostberg and the gap between the pair fell from 68.4sec to 53.5sec.
“I was a bit cautious. For me, this is the most difficult stage of the rally and it was important to get through it cleanly. It’s lined with rocks and we’re using new notes too,” said Meeke. “It was very, very dusty. I got mixed up with the braking and spun onto the grass. I had to reverse back onto the road.”
#WRC #RallyArgentina Gooooo!!! @krismeeke pic.twitter.com/MNxuWifvhg
— Masakazu (@MackyWRC) April 26, 2015
And going into the mid-day break, Meeke conceded a further 21sec to Ostberg and the Northern Irishman’s advantage was cut to 32.5sec. Volkswagen Polo R driver Latvala was third fastest on the first loop and admitted poor visibility had prompted him to drive cautiously.
“I had to be very careful in places; I couldn’t push to the maximum. I tried to keep a good rhythm but at one point there was a massive rock which I had to drive round,” said the Finn.
Volkswagen team-mates Sebastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen were first and second in the opener though they later suffered technical issues, while sixth for Dani Sordo left him frustrated but nevertheless enabled him to extend his advantage over M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans by almost 10sec.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi, in his first WRC outing for the season and making his debut in Argentina, also adopted a cautious approach and maintained his overnight seventh place in the third Citroen DS 3.
The Abu Dhabi native, who is the architect behind the Citroen partnership, was not willing to read too much into his team’s 1-2 chances in Argentina, saying: “I don’t want to talk about it too much, but let’s hope it’s the start of a new chapter for us.”
