Argentina WRC: Paddon's lead shrinks to 2.6s before Power Stage

The Kiwi driver, who took the overall lead after Jari-Matti Latvala's crash yesterday, lost seven seconds in the opening stage of the day, suffering from mechanical issues.

"A terrible stage. Conditions are absolutely incredible and the engine stalled a couple of times when we were braking for hairpins," Paddon said after SS16, which was won by Ott Tanak.

"Once it took me five seconds to restart. It's something we'll have to work around."

Ogier dominated the subsequent stage, cutting the gap by a further 20 seconds to be just 2.6s behind with only the Power Stage left.

Andreas Mikkelsen continued to head Dani Sordo in third despite suffering a spin in SS16, with Mads Ostberg, who also had an off, sitting fifth.

Thierry Neuville passed both Marcos Ligato and Henning Solberg to take in sixth, the latter falling behind Eric Camilli as well.

Latvala, 10th overall, was able to start the day as his car was repaired overnight but the Finn has admitted he is not running at full speed.

Standings after SS17:

Pos.	Driver / Co-Driver	Car	Time/Delay
1	Hayden Paddon  John Kennard	Hyundai	3h27m44.9s
2	Sebastien Ogier  Julien Ingrassia	VW	2.6s
3	Andreas Mikkelsen  Anders Jaeger	VW	50.8s
4	Dani Sordo  Marc Marti	Hyundai	1m05.9s
5	Mads Ostberg  Ola Floene	Ford	4m40.4s
6	Thierry Neuville  Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai	9m05.1s
7	Marcos Ligato  Ruben Garcia	Citroen	9m11.5s
8	Eric Camilli  Benjamin Veillas	Ford	9m37.3s
9	Henning Solberg  Ilka Minor	Ford	10m02.3s
10	Jari-Matti Latvala  Miiko Anttila	Volkswagen	14m38.0s