Jari-Matti Latvala will head to the all-new Celtic Manor stage near Cardiff this evening leading Wales Rally GB by 21.7s following the second Halfway test.
Latvala was second quickest, 0.4s slower than Ford team-mate Petter Solberg, who continues to fend off Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb in the battle for the runner-up spot. Loeb was 0.2s adrift of Solberg through the stage and is now 29.0s behind Latvala in the overall classification.
Evgeny Novikov said a “small mistake” prevented a shot at the stage win in his M-Sport Fiesta, while team-mate Ott Tanak said his rear tyres had become badly worn after he set the fourth quickest time.
Chris Atkinson was distracted when a side window on his MINI John Cooper Works WRC blew out during the stage. Meanwhile, Craig Breen has reclaimed the lead of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship category by edging rival Yazeed Al-Rajhi by a handful of seconds.