Junior trio fights for podium places
Tempestini, Veiby and Folb chase runner-up spot
Veiby dominates Junior WRC in GB
Nobody could touch Ole Christian Veiby in the FIA Junior WRC during Friday's opening leg of Wales Rally GB which the Norwegian ended with a lead of almost three minutes.
He won five of the six stages in the muddy mid-Wales forests to build a 2min 43.1sec advantage in his DS 3 R3-MAX, despite a clutch problem.
"I have a big lead and that's not what I expected, but the others made some mistakes and had problems. I'm sorry for them but I have to focus on myself and find a good rhythm for the next two days," he said.
Category debutants Chris Ingram and William Wagner excelled to hold second and third, although Wagner was almost seven minutes off the lead.
Mohammed Al Mutawaa was fourth ahead of Terry Folb, the only driver to break Veiby's run of fastest times in the penultimate stage.
Pierre-Louis Loubet was Veiby's closest challenger but the Frenchman retired from second in this afternoon's opening test when he crashed. Simone Tempestini went out on the liaison section to the same test with a broken brake cable while Dean Raftery rolled.
All Junior WRC drivers are also registered for WRC 3, which Veiby leads by 2min 21.7sec from Fabio Andolfi, with Ingram third. Quentin Gilbert led until the final stage when he stopped with a broken water pump belt.
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