Thierry Neuville took advantage of a missing rear wing on Ott Tänak’s Fiesta to retake the lead of Rally Poland, with only 3.1 seconds in hand before Sunday’s four remaining stages.
The leading trio of Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Jari-Matti Latvala have all struck problems in the Pozezdrze stage of Rally Poland, with the latter retiring altogether.
Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak are engaged in a tit-for-tat battle for the lead of Rally Poland, with Neuville retaking first place by a mere 1.3 seconds heading into Saturday’s midday service.
Craig Breen has been left “petrified” by the handling of his Citroën C3 WRC, finishing the day 26th overall and calling it “one of the worst days of my career.”
Thierry Neuville has established a slender lead over Rally Italy winner Ott Tänak, with only 1.3 seconds in hand over the Estonian at the end of Friday’s stages.
Jari-Matti Latvala has established a slim lead over Thierry Neuville for the lead of Rally Poland, with the M-Sport pair of Tänak and Ogier in hot pursuit.
Elfyn Evans leads the Rally Poland standings after the first superspecial, holding a 0.8 second lead over Thierry Neuville ahead of Friday’s first full batch of stages.
Andreas Mikkelsen will be racing for a third time this year with Citroën, having confirmed he will represent the French marque at Rally Germany in August.
Craig Breen has compared Rally Poland’s stages as a “battlefield”, after heavy rain overnight transformed the roads surrounding the Mikołajki service park into a heavily rutted mudbath.
Thierry Neuville was fastest through shakedown for Rally Poland, but overnight rain has changed the stages from a hard sandy surface to being muddy and rutted, potentially turning the competitive order upside down.
As the 2017 edition of Rally Poland approaches, Sébastien Ogier is hoping for rain to avoid another dreaded weekend of road sweeping, while Andreas Mikkelsen looks to usurp Kris Meeke as team leader at Citroën.
2017 brings us yet another first time winner and another victory for M-Sport, this time for Ott Tanak
Sébastien Ogier is pragmatic about his disappointing Rally Italia result, looking at the positive of reducing the point loss to title rival Thierry Neuville to only four points.
Jan Kopecký was the latest driver in a rotating cast of factory Skoda drivers to take victory in the WRC 2 class, cruising to victory by over two minutes from nearest challenger Ole Christian Veiby.
Only hours after the conclusion of Rally Italia, Citroën Racing have announced that Andreas Mikkelsen will lead the team into Rally Poland, with Kris Meeke forced to make way for the Norwegian.
Ott Tänak became the fifth driver in seven rallies to claim victory in the World Rally Championship this season, the Estonian’s first win at the top level after 73 previous attempts.
Ott Tänak leads Rally Italia Sardegna going into the final day of action.