The battle for victory on Rally Argentina has been turned on its head after Sebastien Ogier rolled on Sunday’s opening stage.
“I roll on a cut, I took too much the corner and I roll,” said Ogier, whose Citroen DS3 WRC had suffered significant front-end damage.
Ogier’s drama means his overnight lead of 43.7s has now been trimmed to 21.5s behind Sebastien Loeb, who has moved 1.6s ahead of Mikko Hirvonen into second place after encountering fog patches on the stage.
“It’s a big fight with Mikko,” said Loeb, who was fastest through the stage. “It was not cleaning and I had to push really hard, nearly full attack.”
Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC was nursing rear-right damage when he reached the stop line. He said: “The first 20 kilometres were in fog and we were fighting well but I don’t know about the end. I tried and I’m not giving it for free. We hit a few banks here and there but no dramas.”
Petter Solberg, fighting back from his power steering failure on Saturday, was second fastest in his privateer DS3 WRC. “The car was not so easy to drive and we really struggled in some places and it was difficult to keep the car into the corners,” said Solberg.
Standings after SS16:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | S. OGIER / J. INGRASSIA | Citroën DS3 WRC | 3h56m25.7s |
| 02 | S. LOEB / D. ELENA | Citroën DS3 WRC | +21.5s |
| 03 | M. HIRVONEN / J. LEHTINEN | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +23.1s |
| 04 | P. SOLBERG / C. PATTERSSON | Citroën DS3 WRC | +54.9s |
| 05 | M. ØSTBERG / J. ANDERSSON | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +5m26.2s |
| 06 | F. VILLAGRA / J. PÉREZ COMPANC | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +6m55.8s |
| 07 | J. LATVALA / M. ANTTILA | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +11m55.1s |
| 08 | M. WILSON / S. MARTIN | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | +13m46.2s |
| 09 | H. PADDON / J. KENNARD | Subaru Impreza | +25m23.7s |
| 10 | P. FLODIN / M. ANDERSSON | Subaru Impreza | +33m10.7s |
| 11 | D. TAGIROV / A. ZAVERSHINSKAYA | Subaru Impreza | +38m36.8s |
| 12 | N. FUCHS / F. MUSSANO | Mitsubishi Evo X | +42m17.8s |
| 13 | R. ORLANDINI / J. CILLONIZ | Mitsubishi Evo IX | +45m33.4s |
| 14 | M. SEMERAD / M. ERNST | Mitsubishi Evo IX | +47m12.0s |
| 15 | B. GUERRA / B. ROZADA | Mitsubishi Evo X | +48m15.7s |