Tanak inherits lead in Turkey after Neuville and Ogier retire
Latvala finishes 2nd, Paddon 3rd
MARMARIS, Turkey, Sept 15, (AFP): After a dramatic day in which the two men ahead of him in the championship retired after leading, Ott Tanak finished Saturday in first place in the Rally of Turkey.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville broke his suspension on the first special stage of the day. Sebastian Ogier then inherited the lead, survived a shattered wheel in the next stage, but drove off the course in the one after that.
Belgian Neuville is 23 points ahead of Frenchman Ogier in the driver standings. Both could rejoin the rally on Sunday in the hope of picking up some championship bonus points in the closing Power Stage.
Tanak is third in the driver standings, 36 points behind Neuville. The Estonian finished the day 13.1 seconds ahead of his Toyota teammate Jari-Matti Latvala a Finn, with New Zealander Hayden Paddon 1min 10,5sec behind in his Hyundai.
At the start of the day, Neuville led Ogier by 0.3 seconds and was 8.0sec faster than the Frenchman two thirds Vof the way through the 34.24-kilometre eighth stage, but then the top mounting punched through the bonnet of his Hyundai, the World Rally Championship website reported. He limped on but crossed the line 3min 30sec down.
“Something is broken. We didn’t hit anything. I don’t know, unlucky, really unlucky,” Neuville told the website.
Tanak
That left Ogier 25.5sec ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen in a Hyundai but the Frenchman suffered mechanical problems of his own on the next stage, smashing the right wheel on his M-Sport Ford. He was forced to slow and finished seventh, 18 seconds behind Mikkelsen who won the stage.
“It happened in the middle of the road, over a crest,” Ogier told the WRC website. “I didn’t see what was there, it looks like a hole in the road. I thought I would have to do the stage with only rear-wheel drive.”
Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia made roadside repairs themselves.
“To make the repair we had to damage the transmission,” Ogier said. “Not every bolt was tight and I was very surprised it worked.”
He arrived late at the start of the next stage incurring a 60-second penalty that put Mikkelesen in the lead.
On the next stage Ogier drove off the road, became stuck and had to retire.
When Mikkelsen suffered suspension problems of his own on the 11th stage, Tanak became the day’s fourth leader. Latvala climbed to second despite finishing the stage with a puncture.
Tanak even stopped during the stage to lend assistance in the day’s most spectacular mechanical meltdown, contributing his fire extinguisher after Craig Breen’s Citroen burst into flames.
The car was destroyed but Breen and co-driver Scott Martin escaped unscathed.
The rally has taken a heavy toll and 27 of the 90 starters have already retired.
His success follows that of Sky’s Chris Froome in the Tour of Italy in May while another member of the Sky team Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France in July.
Interviewed after the race Yates said his virtually secured victory had not sunk in. “I truly didn’t believe I could pull it off, especially after what happened at the Giro,” he said.
“I was nervous a the beginning of the stage you just never know what can happen, a very ferocious day,” he said.
“But the team was fantastic, I had support until the very last moment with Adam,” he said of his twin brother who rides for the same team.
“British cycling has come a long way in ten years,” Yates told AFP. “And I hope to continue this trend.” Yates was third on the day in a short but mountainous run behind 20th stage winner Quick-Step’s 23-year-old Enric Mas and Astana rider Miguel Angel Lopez, just 24, who climbed onto the virtual podium in second and third place 1min 46sec and 2min 04sec off the Briton’s pace.
“I could see them up ahead the whole time coming up the final kilometres, but I couldn’t get across the gap, so well done to them,” Yates told Eurosport after coming 23 seconds behind them on the stage.
The men who had been second and third overnight Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde and Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk, both struggled on the final climb and fell to fifth and fourth respectively.
The disappointment in Spain at Val-
Mitchelton-Scott’s British cyclist Simon Philip Yates crosses the finish line of the 20th stage of the 73rd edition of ‘La Vuelta’ Tour of Spain cycling race, a 97.3 km hilly route from Les Escaldes to Collada de la Gallina in Andorra
on Sept 15. (AFP)
verde dropping from second to finish off the podium on what could be his final chance, was made up for with the euphoria at the emergence of Mas, who was fourth in the Tour de Suisse this year.
“Of course it’s painful to drop from the podium at the last hurdle,” Valverde admitted.
“But when you give everything you can give you can’t ask more, my rivals were stronger,” he said.
Barring disaster in Madrid, Valverde will win the green points jesrey and with no hills on Sunday’s stage Lotto Soudal rider Thomas De Gendt will take the polka dot climbers title.
French climber Thibaut Pinot, who won two mountain stages on this Vuelta, came sixth, Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran seventh and Movistar man Nairo Quintana, the pre-race favourite, finished eighth.