P-WRC update after SS9: Athanassoulas builds his lead

Skoda driver Lambros Athanassoulas moved further clear at the top of the Production Car World Rally Championship table after posting more fastest Group N times this morning.

Athanassoulas’ job was made more straightforward when his fellow Skoda driver - and winner of the first two P-WRC rounds of the season - Patrik Sandell suffered a major engine problem on the first stage of the day.

Sandell said: “The engine started to run on three cylinders in the first stage. Then it stopped completely and it took us 26 minutes to get it going again. Of course, this is not so good, but we did get out of the stage. We got into stage eight, but then dropped another three minutes on the second stage. It’s been a terrible morning.”

While Sandell rued his misfortune, there was nothing but delight in the other Fabia. Athanassoulas had made changes to the set-up of his Skoda overnight and he revelled in the improved feeling coming back from the Czech Republic machine.

“I am happy with the car now,” he said. “It’s been the perfect day, we have been fast. The car is really suitable for me, with the changes we’ve made, we can really push hard. It’s been good, the only problem was a small off a couple of corners before the end of the last stage. We did some damage to the right-rear of the car, but nothing so bad.”

Nasser Al-Attiyah was second after the final stage of the morning, although he remained concerned by the steering on his Subaru Impreza WRX. The car suffered more damage on the second stage of the day, forcing the Qatari to make running repairs ahead of the final test before lunch.

“We had the [steering] problem for about 10 kilometres in stage eight,” he said. “It was really quite hard to keep the car in a straight line - and then we hit the back wheel near the end. We can fix the front of the car, but not the rear, it will be nice to get back to service.”

Armindo Araujo was third at lunchtime and in the middle of a big scrap with Toshi Arai. Aria passed the Portuguese Mitsubishi driver for position on SS8, but dropped back into fourth on the morning’s final test.