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WRC Rally Argentina: Thierry Neuville wins in Hyundai one-two

Thierry Neuville extended his World Rally Championship lead to 10 points with victory on Rally Argentina, heading a Hyundai one-two by 48.4 seconds from Andreas Mikkelsen.

Heavy rain had meant unpredictable conditions on Friday morning, which hindered Neuville as first car on the road and he ran down in ninth after SS3.

But he quickly shot up the leaderboard thereafter, deposing Toyota's Ott Tanak of the lead on SS8 and remaining out front for the rest of the rally.

Tanak had been close behind Neuville in second place for most of Saturday but a battery charge issue forced him to retire on the day's penultimate stage, giving Neuville a comfortable lead over Mikkelsen to the finish.

Neuville also picked up three bonus points by finishing third on the El Condor powerstage, behind reigning champion Sebastien Ogier and Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala.

Mikkelsen had lost around 20s with a slow puncture on SS4 but otherwise drove a clean rally, benefiting from Tanak's retirement and issues for both Kris Meeke and Ogier to move into second place on Saturday afternoon.

A tense battle between Ogier and Meeke went down to the wire, with Ogier reclaiming the final podium place on the El Condor powerstage.

Ogier had been running third on Saturday morning but hit a gatepost on SS11 and broke his power steering, dropping around a minute.

Meeke had been third after SS15 but was demoted to fifth by a 10s penalty for taking a shortcut around the same gate that Ogier had hit on SS11, which Citroen and M-Sport had flagged to officials to be investigated.

Initially Meeke had stormed from fifth to third on Sunday morning and entered the powerstage with 5.2s in hand over Ogier.

But a front left puncture demoted him back to fourth, with Ogier taking a last gasp podium finish.

Toyota's third Yaris WRC had also been on a charge, with Latvala passing Sordo for fifth on Mina Clavero, the penultimate stage, and then extending the gap to 5.6s by going second-fastest on the power stage.

Teemu Suninen wrapped up a disappointing rally for M-Sport with seventh place, 3m30.6s behind sixth-placed Sordo - who scored two bonus points for the fourth-fastest powerstage time.

Suninen's team-mate Elfyn Evans had crashed out on Saturday, with Ogier's Citroen team-mate Esapekka Lappi doing likewise a day earlier.

Tanak returned from retirement on Sunday in ninth place and chased down a two minute gap to WRC2 Pro winner Mads Ostberg, eventually pipping the Citroen C3 R5 driver to eighth overall by just 3.7s and taking the final bonus point on the powerstage.

Pedro Heller wrapped up his first WRC2 victory in dramatic fashion, his car grinding to a halt less than a mile from the finish line of the powerstage.

With his Ford Fiesta R5 showing "all the red alarms", spectators had to give him a push start, and he finished the rally in road mode.

He had inherited the lead thanks to trouble for others, with three of his rivals ahead all retiring on Friday.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz suffered broken left-rear suspension on SS4, Heller's older brother Alberto retired on the road section after SS7 and Toyota's junior driver Takamoto Katsuta crashed on SS8.

Zdroj: autosport.com