Jari-Matti Latvala fractionally increased his YPF Rally Argentina lead after he and Hayden Paddon shared the wins in the first two stages of Friday afternoon’s repeated loop.
Kiwi Paddon struck first to win the test from Soconcho to Villa del Dique by a tenth of a second from Sébastien Ogier, with Latvala half a second further back as the fight for supremacy continued at the head of this fourth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Latvala hit back in Amboy - Santa Monica to head Ogier by two-tenths of a second with Paddon another 2.4sec behind. It left Latvala with a slightly increased 6.6sec advantage over Volkswagen Polo R team-mate Ogier, who relegated Paddon to third, 0.8sec back.
“The first stage isn’t one of my favourites. There was a lot of impacts in the ruts and I had to be careful not to push too much. The next one was very good, it’s a big fight,” said Latvala.
Ogier admitted he was on the limit and could do no more while Paddon was far from down-hearted at ceding second to the Frenchman.
“I’ve cleaned up my driving. The roads are better than we thought but there is a lot of bedrock which is hard on the car. A long way to go, but if I can keep this time gap at the end of the day and stay within striking distance then I’ll be pleased,” said the Hyundai i20 driver.
Dani Sordo and Andreas Mikkelsen were fourth and fifth in both tests but the time gaps were so small that the Spaniard regained just half a second to leave the gap at 12.9sec.
Seventh-placed Henning Solberg reported difficulties in downshifting in his Fiesta RS while Lorenzo Bertelli retired his similar car from eighth after losing all power in Soconcho.