Australian photographer, Michael Vettas, reports on the final day of the Rallye de France.
The shortest day of the event would conclude Rallye de France, as teams headed west of Strasbourg for two stages looped, including the Power Stage.
Coming in to the day, Latvala still held his commanding lead of 28sec over Mikkelsen, while Meeke was a further 25sec behind, and Dani Sordo in his Hyundai a further 48sec behind Meeke.
Ogier was in 18th position with no chance of taking the win, however every possibility of moving in to the top 10 to gain a few crucial points towards his championship hopes.
After the morning’s loop positions had not changed, however the big mover, Ogier, had moved up a further 4 positions to 14th. He needed a miracle and over 3min to move in to the 10th spot, unfortunately this did not happen and the only consolation was he fastest by almost 15sec on the power stage, gaining a crucial 3 points towards his total.
His championship lead is now 28 points, meaning all he needs is finish in the top 4 of the final two events and his title is safe - that is, of course, if Latvala wins both.
It’s set to be an exciting couple of events, so let’s hope for competition’s sake Latvala can win in Spain and bridge the gap even further.
That is it for me for this round. I have two weeks on assignment travelling through the German/Austrian/Swiss Alps for a few clients, but then I will be back in Spain.
Top 10 results as follows:
1. J. LATVALA 2:38:19.1
2. A. MIKKELSEN 2:39:03.9 +44.8 +44.8
3. K. MEEKE 2:39:24.4 +20.5 +1:05.3
4. D. SORDO 2:40:07.8 +43.4 +1:48.7
5. M. HIRVONEN 2:40:19.8 +12.0 +2:00.7
6. E. EVANS 2:41:19.9 +1:00.1 +3:00.8
7. M. OSTBERG 2:41:21.6 +1.7 +3:02.5
8. T. NEUVILLE 2:42:27.5 +1:05.9 +4:08.4
9. B. BOUFFIER 2:42:32.0 +4.5 +4:12.9
10. M. PROKOP 2:44:26.6 +1:54.6 +6:07.5
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