At the end of the opening day of competition in Rally Australia, Andreas Mikkelsen remains in control and the Norwegian has extended his lead throughout the course of the day. Team-mate Sébastien Ogier bounced back during the second run through the stages this afternoon and is 15.4 seconds adrift, with Thierry Neuville and Hayden Paddon battling for Hyundai honours in third and fourth respectively.
The final round of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship got underway last night in the host town of Coffs Harbour, but today the crews headed south for nine stages before returning to town for two runs around the spectacular new super special stage. Bidding for victory in Volkswagen’s final WRC event, and with hopes of moving himself up into second in the Championship standings, Mikkelsen pushed hard from the outset to try and minimise the effect of running third on the road. Despite the huge challenge faced by the front runners cleaning the loose gravel, the Norwegian won all but one of the five stages in the morning loop to pull out a 13.7 second advantage over Paddon. This afternoon he won one of the repeated stages and continued to run well, despite being hampered in one stage with poor handling and a water bottle coming loose and getting stuck between his feet.
Sébastien Ogier, running first on the road, risked everything this morning but fourth was the best the Frenchman could achieve by the mid-leg service. This afternoon, however, he had a far better time over cleaner roads and two stage wins, as well as victories in the super special stages, helped him move into second after a big battle with Paddon. The Kiwi opted for a different tyre choice to his rivals this morning and led for one stage but then lost time in the penultimate stage of the morning with a series of half spins. In the heat of the afternoon, he – like most crews – struggled with tyre wear and lost his second position to both Ogier and team-mate Neuville in the final special stage of the day. Neuville had little more than wheel spin to worry about this morning and the Belgian won one stage this afternoon and enjoyed the better conditions, overall satisfied with his performance despite running second on the road.
Mads Østberg had a good morning and has been battling with team-mate Eric Camilli, the Fiesta drivers fifth and sixth overnight and split by 7.8 seconds. Ott Tanak, seventh before the super special stages, wasn’t happy with the car set-up this morning, had a spin and sticking throttle but enjoyed a better run over the repeated stages. He did however pick up a 40 second penalty arriving late into the super specials stages and dropped behind Dani Sordo who is now seventh. The Spaniard was on good form earlier in the day, running as high as second, but dropped back with a similar 20 second time penalty for arriving late at the start of SS4 after an uncharacteristic navigation error by co-driver Marc Marti. Esapekka Lappi is ninth overall in his Škoda R5 machinery, taking the position from Lorenzo Bertelli in the penultimate stage. The Finn has been in a league of his own in the FIA WRC 2 Championship category and won every stage of the day. He is more than two minutes ahead of Nicholas Fuchs. Lappi, bidding for a maiden FIA WRC 2 Championship title, needs to finish first or second to move ahead of series leader Teemu Suninen, who is not competing in Australia. Michel Fabre, the only competitor in the FIA WRC 3 Championship, is still running at the end of the first day.
Jari-Matti Latvala was the biggest victim of the day, a mistake on his part seeing him way down in 25th position after running wide in the opening stage and clipping a bridge. He damaged the suspension and was forced to contest all the morning stages before returning to service for vital repairs. He managed to recover some time in the afternoon but can now only hope to challenge for fastest times and honours in Sunday’s Power Stage, such is his time loss.