Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila claimed their second victory of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship season at Rally Argentina today. The Finns were dominant throughout and beat team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia by one minute 26.9 seconds at the end of three long days of competition. Third place was taken by Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle in their debut World Championship outing on Rally Argentina.

 

In the FIA World Rally Championship, Ogier tops the leaderboard, 24 points ahead of Latvala. Andreas Mikkelsen and Mads Østberg are equal on 48 points behind the two Volkswagen crews who have now collectively won nine consecutive WRC events. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, the German marque takes a commanding advantage and is 97 points ahead of nearest rivals, the Citroën Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.

 

Today’s route covered four stages, without service, and took the crews to the famous Mina Clavero and El Condor stages to the southwest of Cordoba. Conditions were treacherous with deep mud, patchy fog and rain ensuring the final day of competition was no easy ride to the finish. The second running of El Condor counted as the Power Stage, where Ogier, Mikko Hirvonen and Latvala collected the extra points respectively for being fastest through this single stage.

  

Behind the leading trio, Mikkelsen recovered from an early retirement in the event to take fourth position, but an alternator warning light after the final stage meant the Norwegian had an anxious drive to the finish. Thierry Neuville piloted the sole surviving Hyundai to fifth position in the team’s first visit to South America with the i20 WRC. The Belgian was forced to drive slowly in the final stage, however, having broken something in the transmission. Having adopted a different approach to this rally, Robert Kubica reaped the reward of sixth position and his first points of the season. He headed Elfyn Evans, who similarly drove a measured and safe rally to reach the finish in his first Rally Argentina. Martin Prokop finished eighth and Mikko Hirvonen climbed to ninth, having won three of today’s stages. Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah claimed the final point-scoring position and also won the FIA WRC 2 Championship category for the second consecutive event.

 

The sixth round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the contenders back to Europe and the Mediterranean island of Sardinia for Rally Italia Sardegna (5-8 June).

 

Rally Argentina – Final Unofficial Results (subject to scrutineering)