This year's season looks more promising again, because Volkswagen's dominance was disrupted by technical problems, and so Chris Meeke took the first victory in his career with a Citroën DS3 WRC .
The break from the Mexican Rally was a long six weeks, the teams now moved further south, where they started for the Argentine Rally . In the first stage, 152 sharp kilometers awaited the crews. The first test on Thursday evening was won by this year's dominant Sébastien Ogier with a Volkswagen Polo R WRC, second was Chris Meeke and third was Andreas Mikkelsen with another Volkswagen. But the very second test on Friday brought Ogier bad luck and problems with his car's engine. Mikkelsen again made a driving mistake and had a puncture, Meeke worked his way to the front with a half-minute advantage over Dani Sorda in the Hyundai i20 N WRC. Third was the last Volkswagen with a chance of a good placing, piloted by Jari-Matti Latvala . Sorda, however, subsequently encountered problems with the booster and relinquished his position to Latvala. Mads Ostberg moved into third place with another Citroën, followed by Ford drivers Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans
Latvala also had problems in the second part of the stage, but he initially held second place, but eventually Ostberg overtook him. Tänak hit a rock in the ford and also lost several positions. In addition, Sordo , with a repaired car, again climbed the order to fourth position ahead of Evans . The problems of the favorites brought the Czech Martin Prokop in the Ford Fiesta RS WRC to sixth place. He was followed by Thierry Neuville with Hyundai, Khalid Al-Qassimi with Citroën and then the fastest WRC2 drivers – Al-Kuwari and Protasov.
The second stage contained four special stages with a length of 131 kilometers. Ogier won the first, moreover, Meeke made more mistakes in the first tests and was losing the lead to his teammate. Sordo in turn pulled Latvala and Neuville Prokop . However, the order did not change either after these tests or after the following ninth test, which was annulled. Hyundai's Hayden Paddon lost control of his car and went off the track. Unfortunately, although it was a restricted area, several spectators were moving in it and some of them were injured. As you can see, other countries also have a problem with unruly spectators. In the last test of the day, Sordo retired, while Meeke again increased his lead over Ostberg . Latvala was third, Evans fourth, Neuville fifth and Prokop sixth and Al-Qassimi seventh. Then the best WRC2 drivers were Al-Kuwari, Dominguez, and the home competitor Saba was in tenth position.
There were only two special stages on Sunday, the second one was also an extra-scoring PowerStage . On the first, the leading Citroëns were once again fighting for victory as Ostberg beat Meek to cut some of his lead. Latvala had to retire due to an engine failure, so Evans moved to the podium. Behind him were Neuville and Prokop . In the last test, Neuville also retired after hitting a piece of rock. The same place also definitively eliminated Mikkelsen . Meeke took the lead in the final test to take his maiden World Championship victory. In addition, it was the first victory for a Briton since 2002 (when Colin McRae won the Safari rally). The double for the Citroën team was secured by second Ostberg, third place and then Elfyn Evans won his personal best. Martin Prokop equaled his lifetime best and finished fourth for the third time in his career. Sordo was fifth after problems and Al-Qassimi was sixth. The next positions were WRC2 drivers Al-Kuwari and Dominguez. Ninth was Saba and tenth Villagra.
Photo: RTE, Autoblog, Crash, Plus.WRC, 168hs
