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| Now where did I drop that £1 coin? |
There’s no change at the top of the leaderboard now that all
the forest stages have been completed in this year’s Rally Wales GB. With just the two ‘spectator specials’ at
Kinmel Park and a blast around Great Orme to do now, Sebastien Ogier is still
maintaining a cushion over VW team mate Jari-Matti Latvala who actually stalled
at a junction in the stage, but Andreas Mikkelsen in the third placed Polo R
has lost out to Mads Ostberg.
Mikkelson commented at the end of the 19th test
in Glocaenog: “We tried everything. I was going too fast, the rear right hit
the bank and spun us around in fifth gear which is not so nice!” That was
enough to allow Ostberg to snatch 4th place behind team mate Thierry
Neuville who is hanging on to third place and top Ford driver.
As for Tony Jardine, the usual smile looks a wee bit more like a grimace this
close to the finish: “The car keeps slipping on to two
cylinders. We ran wide at the last hairpin, and have just got to keep it
together now.”
Leaderboard after 19 (of 22) stages:
1, S. Ogier,
2h 57m 47.6s
2, J.
Latvala, 2h 58m 13.6s, +26.0
3, T.
Neuville, 2h 59m 0.4s, +1:18.8
4, M. Østberg,
2h 59m 26.1s, +1:38.5
5, A.
Mikkelsen, 2h 59ms 43.6s, +1:56.0
6, M. Prokop,
3h 05m 06.8s, +7:19.2
7, D. Sordo,
3h 06m 04.8ss, +8:17.2
8, E. Evans,
(WRC2), 3h 08m 31.8s, +10:44.2
9, J. Ketomaa,
(WRC2), 3h 09m 34.9s, +11:47.3
10 M. Higgins, (WRC2), 3h 10m 33.7, +12:46.1
12, T. Cave,
(WRC2), 3h 15m 39.0s, +17:51.4
22, M. Taylor,
3h 30m 13.4s, +32:25.8
23, R. Barrable,
(WRC2), 3h 30m 27.7s, +32:40.1
25, T.
Jardine, 3h 38m 20.6s, +40:33.0
27, E.
Boland, 3h 40m 40.2s, +42:52.6
31, O.
Pryce, 3h 43m 47.9s, +46:00.3
32, J. Ford,
3h 45m 15.0s, +47:27.4
33, C.
Ingram, 3h 46m 52.2s, +49:04.6
36, D.
McKenna, 3h 48m 48.4s, +50:41.1
36, P. Morrow,
3h 48m 48.4s, +51:00.8
37, K.
Cronin, (WRC3), 3h 49m 27.8s, +51:40.2
And just a
wee note to add to yesterday’s reports. It would appear that there were some
glitches in the rally timing system which caused delays and that’s why results
were so slow in coming through.
The
organisers also had another headache at the Chirk Castle ‘spectator’ stages
yesterday afternoon with more spectators arriving and trying to get in – when the
car parks were already full.
So despite
having tickets some folk still couldn’t get in! Pity the poor Marshals trying
to sort that one out.
