WRC, Rally
Latvala eyeing his first asphalt victory: Rallye de France 2nd Day
Latvala, Mikkelsen and Meeke continue to battle for Rallye de France Alsace honours
Volkswagen Motorsport’s Jari-Matti Latvala has consolidated his advantage during the second day of Rallye de France Alsace and the Finn now has 28 seconds in hand with just 63.38 competitive kilometres to run on Sunday. Fellow Polo R WRC driver Andreas Mikkelsen has maintained second and while Kris Meeke continues to hold third, the Ulsterman has slipped further back, determined not to risk his position in an all-out fight.
The second day took the crews south of Strasbourg for two loops of three stages separated by a remote service in Colmar, before heading down to Mulhouse for a short super special stage of just 4.86 kilometres. Latvala has been supreme during the event and dominated the morning, winning each of the first three stages to increase his lead. He won one of the repeated stages this afternoon, losing out to team-mate Sébastien Ogier on the other two, but has such a command of the leaderboard that he remains unchallenged by his rivals. He rounded the day off with a win on the super special stage too. Both Mikkelsen and Meeke have similarly run without problems and Meeke is determined to focus on his own rally and not get drawn into a fight that could push him into errors. He has however pulled clear of the chasing pack during the day.
The battle for fourth has been intense; Dani Sordo, Mads Østberg, Mikko Hirvonen and Robert Kubica have all been fighting for the position and while Sordo held the advantage over the stages, the Spaniard has come under increasing threat from Kubica who has climbed from seventh to fifth and was just three-tenths of a second adrift of Sordo before the closing super special stage. At the end of the day, the rivals are split by only nine-tenths of a second. Hirvonen has maintained sixth, but also increased his advantage over Østberg when the Norwegian picked up a penalty for starting the penultimate stage late while he tried to repair a leak in the rear differential. Elfyn Evans has climbed from 10th to eighth and Bryan Bouffier is ninth despite a couple of half spins. Thierry Neuville rounds off the top 10, the Belgian not comfortable with the car set-up.
Rallye de France Alsace – Unofficial Results after Section 6
| 1. Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila | Volkswagen Polo R WRC | 2hr 06min 40.4sec |
| 2. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene | Volkswagen Polo R WRC | 2hr 07min 08.4sec |
| 3. Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle | Citroën DS3 WRC | 2hr 07min 34.1sec |
| 4. Dani Sordo/Marc Marti | Hyundai i20 WRC | 2hr 08min 22.1sec |
| 5. Robert Kubica/Maciej Szczepaniak | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | 2hr 08min 23.0sec |
| 6. Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | 2hr 08min 35.0sec |
| 7. Mads Østberg/Jonas Andersson | Citroën DS3 WRC | 2hr 09min 45.0sec |
| 8. Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt | Ford Fiesta RS WRC | 2hr 09min 57.2sec |
| 9. Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri | Hyundai i20 WRC | 2hr 10min 27.4sec |
| 10. Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul | Hyundai i20 WRC | 2hr 10min 44.1sec |
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