J-WRC update after day one

This afternoon saw a repeat of the first three stages and ended with two runs round the Leon Superspecial. The weather remained clear but the stages were getting rougher as the day progressed.

Citroen driver Sebastien Ogier continued to dominate the J-WRC category, "a perfect day" as he put it, also a little lucky when he admitted touching a rock on stage five with a rear wheel and the tyre held. During the afternoon the organisers unexpectedly imposed a 10 second penalty on the Frenchman for late arrival at the control before the first stage of the day. This did not affect his lead after stage one, and by the end of the day his lead was 58.2 seconds.

It was a bad afternoon for Patrik Sandell, however, his brake problems being fraught and the crew spent a lot of time working on their car outside controls. From second after stage three the Swede dropped down to fifth after stage six. He had a frantic evening when the car got to the Superspecial stage outside Leon, being completely unable to stop the car at the end of the stages. "It was completely crazy all afternoon, absolutely nothing would stop the car. Uphill was alright, downhill you hoped the pace notes would not be read out too late. A broken rear caliper was the reason for the trouble. That was my bad day, tomorrow will be better!"

There were no problems in the afternoon for Jaan Molder in second place, in the top placed Suzuki, or for his fellow Suzuki driver Kosciuszko. Sandell's misfortune allowed Burkart up to fourth despite a slow start in the morning, while Gallagher was sixth and feeling better as the day wore on.

Stage four was a re-run of stage one, and Prokop disappeared once again, very close to the place where he went off the road this morning, this time due to a failed crankshaft sensor. "Actually, I do not think it was anything to do with my accident this morning. The mechanics had done a fantastic job at service smartening up the car before we got to this stage." Then on stage five Komljenovic also disappeared in his Clio R3. He hit a rock, broke the radiator and is thought to have damaged the engine. Super 1600 cars were in the top six places, the only other remaining runner being Fanari's C2-R2.

Ogier led all day and scored best J-WRC time on all the orthodox stages, while Kosciuszko won the category on both the runs through the Superspecial stage at the end of the day.