Sebastien Ogier took the early Rally Argentina lead by going quickest of all in Thursday’s super special stage, and managing to extend the gap to his rivals on the second day’s morning and afternoon loops.
Ogier’s only setback on Friday was the third special stage when he lost a bit of time to the Citroens of Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen who currently hold second and third places respectively.
Sebastien Loeb struggled to find the right rythm on his car prior to SS3, but he soon got over his problems and moved up from fourth to second place.
Jari-Matti Latvala struggled with extreme tyre wear on SS4 and fell to fourth; he’s 40.7 seconds behind his Volkswagen team-mate.
Dani Sordo crashed out from the rally following a miscalled pace note; the Spanish Citroen driver is now 8 minutes behind the front runners. Mads Ostberg meanwhile was running in fifth until a broken steering arm forced him to stop on SS4.
Leading positions after SS5: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 1h57m14.1s 2. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 16.3s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 18.1s 4. Jari-Matti Latvala VW + 40.7s 5. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 1m37.7s 6. Andreas Mikkelsen VW + 1m55.1s 7. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford + 2m12.5s 8. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 6m41.4s 9. Michal Kosciuszko Italia Mini + 9m48.3s 10. Gabriel Pozzo M-Sport Ford + 10m10.3s