
Euan Thorburn has dropped back a wee bit. He had a knackered bottom balljoint last night, but purloined a spare from M-Sport. This morning he had a misfire on the first two stages and this was traced to a crank sensor. It apparently cleared itself in the third test and then he stalled it at a chicane in the fourth test. It was on a tarmac stretch of road, but the front runners had scattered slittery mud all over it and he just turned in, slid wide and smacked a bale.
Tony Jardine was lucky to re-start this morning after the Scroots cleared his repairs at 3.00 am, then at 6.00 am he was told he would need a new o/s front wing and headlamp before he would be allowed to start. Eventually he managed to borrow the parts from Citroen - apparently they had a stock for their recce cars - and the boys managed to get the car looking showroom-good just minutes before he was due to re-start.
Garry Pearson had a half spin on the first stage this morning but he's pleased with his pace using Chris Ingram in the works Peugeot as a guide.
Leaderboard after 17 of 23 stages (and list of top Brits):
1, S. OGIER, 2:33:19.3
2, M. HIRVONEN, 2:34:17.4
3, K. MEEKE, 2:34:20.8
4, M. OSTBERG, 2:35:00.5
5, T. NEUVILLE, 2:35:03.8
6, E. EVANS, 2:35:11.7
7, O. TANAK, 2:35:52.6
8, J. LATVALA, 2:36:47.4
9, H. SOLBERG, 2:36:56.7
10, M. PROKOP, 2:37:13.8
15, M. WILSON, 2:44:37.4
16, T. CAVE, 2:44:39.2
19, O. PRYCE, 2:45:51.5
25, P. MORROW, 2:52:27.8
29, A. FISHER, 2:57:09.2
30, E. THORBURN, 2:58:18.7
41, J. GREER, 3:04:51.5
42, C. INGRAM, 3:04:59.1
43, W. UTTING, 3:05:03.4
47, M. MCCORMACK, 3:07:05.2
48, G. GREENSMITH, 3:09:24.8
50, S. WILLIAMS, 3:11:55.3
52, S. WILKINSON, 3:15:43.5
53, T. JARDINE, 3:18:14.8
58, T. SIMPSON, 3:29:51.2
59, B. MCKAY, 3:32:09.3
60, G. PEARSON, 3:35:32.4
61, S. KAKAD, 3:42:20.9