Argentina WRC: Tanak leads after opening superspecial

Ott Tanak took an early lead on Rally Argentina, winning the Villa Carlos Paz superspecial by 1.6 seconds from Sebastien Ogier.

Toyota’s main title contender followed up his fastest time in shakedown with the best time on the short 1.18-mile blast around the host city’s streets, which took place in damp conditions.

Tanak's teammate Kris Meeke also mirrored his shakedown performance by going third quickest, 0.1s off Citroen driver Ogier’s second-fastest time.

Hyundai duo Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville completed the top five, with Neuville dropping 2.1s to title rival Tanak on the Villa Carlos Paz streets.

Jari-Matti Latvala suffered a bizarre moment only a few seconds into the stage, when a dog ran towards the path of his Toyota Yaris. Though the Finn was “a bit disturbed” by the stray animal, his time loss was minimal, ending up tied with Dani Sordo's Hyundai for sixth.

Behind eighth-placed Esapekka Lappi was M-Sport pairing Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen, who spun late on after taking an aggressive cut over the middle of a grassy roundabout.

Three-time European Rally champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz had been fifth fastest at the midway point despite driving a less powerful R5-specification Volkswagen Polo GTI, but spun at the same roundabout as Suninen, forcing the Pole into a three-point turn.

Instead it was Toyota protege Takamoto Katusta that was fastest of the WRC2 contingent, 0.3s off Suninen’s time and 0.8s ahead of WRC2 Pro leader Gus Greensmith.

SS1 results:

Pos.	#	Driver/Co-driver	Car	Total Time	Gap
1	8	Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja	Toyota Yaris WRC	1'58.6
2	1	Sebastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia	Citroen C3 WRC	2'00.2	1.6
3	5	Kris Meeke Sebastian Marshall	Toyota Yaris WRC	2'00.3	1.7
4	89	Andreas Mikkelsen Anders Jaeger	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	2'00.6	2.0
5	11	Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	2'00.7	2.1
6	10	Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila	Toyota Yaris WRC	2'00.9	2.3
7	6	Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	2'00.9	2.3
8	4	Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm	Citroen C3 WRC	2'01.5	2.9
9	33	Elfyn Evans Scott Martin	Ford Fiesta WRC	2'01.7	3.1
10	3	Teemu Suninen Marko Salminen	Ford Fiesta WRC	2'02.1	3.5