Neuville leads Hyundai 1-2, Ogier sneaks on to podium

Top 15 results from Rally Argentina

Thierry Neuville has extended his World Rally Championship lead to 10 points with a commanding victory at Rally Argentina, leading home a Hyundai 1-2 while Sebastien Ogier grabbed the final podium place with a dramatic Power Stage win.

With Neuville comfortably leading the general classification after Ott Tanak dropped out with an electrical issue on his Toyota late on Saturday’s running, the Belgian driver retained his margin over the final three stages on Sunday to win by 48.4s from teammate Andreas Mikkelsen.

Ogier claimed victory on the El Condor Power Stage, bagging the maximum five bonus points, plus third place after Kris Meeke suffered a cruel late puncture 6km from the finish of the event.

The tyre trouble saw Citroen’s Ogier nip into third place by 1.4s at the finish to leave the Toyota team off the podium for the first time this season.

After a tricky Rally Argentina, Jari-Matti Latvala grabbed second place on the Power Stage to seal fifth place for Toyota ahead of Dani Sordo by just 5.6s in the final Hyundai car.

Teemu Suninen led the M-Sport Ford charge over four minutes off the pace in seventh place, following Elfyn Evan’s crash out of the event, with Tanak recovering under Rally 2 rules to take eighth place for Toyota.

Mads Ostberg won the WRC2 class for Citroen almost six minutes up the road on Pedro Heller (Ford) who completed the top 10 finishers.