Paddon leads Argentina as Latvala crashes
Kiwi on course for first WRC win
Fuchs regains WRC 2 lead in Argentina
Nicolas Fuchs regained top spot in WRC 2 at YPF Rally Argentina after Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari rolled out of the lead on Saturday afternoon.
Peruvian Fuchs led yesterday before broken power steering and a puncture on his Ford Fiesta RS plunged him down the order. But having recovered to second, he was gifted the lead when Qatari Al-Kuwari crashed his Skoda Fabia R5 and lost nine minutes.
Fuchs, who suffered another puncture today, admitted he was driving at only 80 per cent on the rough gravel tracks near Villa Carlos Paz to preserve his car.
“It’s very difficult in this position,” he said. “I don’t want to drive flat out in these stages because I just need to finish. We’re going to replace all the parts on the car with new ones tonight!”
Fuchs led Poland’s Hubert Ptaszek, driving a Peugeot 208 T16 R5, by 3min 26.4sec with Al-Kuwari more than 10min off the lead in third.
“We rolled at a left corner and it took a long time to get the car back on the road. We changed the rear right tyre which was punctured and then lost more time driving to the finish because we had only two-wheel drive,” explained Al-Kuwari.
Didier Arias retired his Fabia R5 from second place after the opening test, having lost three minutes. The Paraguayan is fourth ahead of championship leader Elfyn Evans, who was fastest in four stages and stopped to change punctures in his Fiesta R5 in the other two tests.
Augusto Bestard and Khalid Al Suwaidi completed the runners, both having retired for a second time today.
