After Latvala, Munchi’s team leader,
Luis Perez Companc is 13th, with Britain’s Guy Wilks and Mark Higgins 14th and 15th, 1-2 in the
FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category.
Wilks is looking good to take the PWRC win, more than a minute up on Higgins, while Juho Hanninen is third, a further 20 seconds back. Wilks and Higgins are also battling for the BRC honours – and with the clocks re-set in that class following leg 1, it is currently a lot closer there.
Alessandro Bettega and Armindo Araujo complete the PWRC top five, with David Higgins sixth.
There have been a number of retirements so far, but one of the most noticeable is Gabriel Pozzo, who had been in contention to take the Production crown. He was unable to re-start today though following his off on Friday and his demise hands the 2007 PWRC title to Toshi Arai, who is not competing this weekend as GB is not one of his nominated events [see separate story].
Several runners were able to re-join however, including in addition to Latvala,
Henning Solberg and Sebastian Lindholm, who is giving the all-new SX4 WRC its debut on gravel. Henning finished the day having broke back into the top 20, while Lindholm is running around 35th - his best time coming in SS8, when he was 15th quickest.
The action now concludes on Sunday - with two stages on the bill, both of which will be repeated. SS14, the 28.89 kilometre-run through Brechfa 1, will begin the leg, getting underway at 07.46 hours local time – it is the longest stage of the event.
