Jari-Matti Latvala steps out in front in Argentina

23 April 2016 12:53

Jari-Matti Latvala led the way after the first full day of action in the YPF Rally Argentina as he pursued back-to-back victories.

Latvala, who won the previous round in Mexico in his Volkswagen Polo R, took four of Friday's eight stages to lead by 7.9 seconds from team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

Ogier had begun the day with a narrow advantage after clocking the joint-best time in Thursday's opening super stage and led after the first two stages before Latvala made his move on a day of fast, gravel roads, covering a little over 150 kilometres.

"It's been a very good day with no really big mistakes," said Latvala on the WRC website. "A couple of small ones, but that's part of the game when you're fighting hard. It was my plan to take this morning's first stage steadily because it was the roughest. It isn't one of my favourites and second time through there were many impacts in the ruts, so I was careful not to push too much again."

Hayden Paddon steered his Hyundai i20 to third place, 3.5sec back on Ogier, after an intensive battle between the two throughout the day.

Dani Sordo, who had joined Ogier at the top of the time sheets on Thursday night, suffered from a sticking throttle in his i20 and finished the day fifth, 23.3 sec back as Andreas Mikkelsen moved ahead of him in his Polo R.

Source: PA