Sebastien Ogier Leads Rally Argentina

 

With cars lining up side-by-side the VW pilot one the 6.04km stage by 3.0seconds from Citroen driver Mads Ostberg, rounding out the top 3 was Andreas Mikkelsen a further 0.5 seconds behind.

 

“Four weeks without a rally is too long for a rally driver, so I am very pleased to be here in Argentina. The rally will be very demanding, that much is certain. The rain they have had here over the past few weeks has really eroded the route and made it brutal for the car and tyres. You need to be even more focussed than usual, particularly tomorrow morning, as the first two stages ‘Santa Catalina’ and ‘Ascochingo’ could decide who is going to be among the front-runners and who is not. However, Julien and I are ready and raring to take on the challenge.”

 

 

Third place getter Mikkelsen said “Cleverness. That will be the keyword at this Rally Argentina. We saw on the ‘Recce’ that the special stages have a completely different character to last season – even though over four fifths of the route are identical. There have been a lot of storms and poor weather in recent weeks. The stages have been seriously eroded, making them very tough on the material. This means you have to find the right balance, attack where you can attack, and ease off where necessary. The first four kilometres today revealed little about what we can expect over the coming three days. However, we have definitely made a good start.”