The Trawscoed stage starts out wih a downhill journey before it levels out into a rapid narrow road lined with trees right on the edges. The muddy and slippery soil of this trail is considered as one of the trickiest challenges of the rally.
It seems however that, notwithstanding the nature of the routes, Jari-Matti Latvala is making the best of every occasion. The Stobart Ford driver has once again claimed a stage win, this one with a fastest time of 16'39"7. "I took it a little bit more carefully," he said.
2.2 seconds behind, second-placed Marcus Grönholm was the first of the Ford teammates to cross the finish line while Mikko Hirvonen arrived next in third position. "I took it steady, I just wanted to finish the stage," admitted Hirvonen.
"It doesn't look good for the championship," declared a dejected Grönholm at stage's end.
They were followed by another duo, that of the Citroën Sport team: Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo took the fourth and fifth positions. "The car is going well, no problem," reported Loeb.
Henning Solberg of the Stobart Ford team did well and was the sixth-quickest driver on this tricky challenge. Petter Solberg's seventh position is also of note: despite struggling with a works Subaru Impreza running on a puncture which occurred early on, he crossed the finish line only 26.9 seconds after the stage winner.
Over the half-minute delay's mark, Subaru's Xevi Pons came next in eighth position. Closing off the top ten were the Adapta Subaru of Mads Ostberg and the OMV Kronos Citroën of Manfred Stohl.
Still dealing with demisting issues aboard his Subaru team Impreza, Chris Atkinson lost 50 seconds on this run. As he was nearing the end of the stage, Luis Perez Companc of the Munchi's Ford team retired after going off-road.
The leaderboard shows Mikko Hirvonen easily holding the rally lead, with Marcus Grönholm 32.1 seconds behind and not challenging him for the win. Safely running in third position with title considerations on his mind, Sébastien Loeb is 1'01"4 away, yet far ahead of Petter Solberg and Dani Sordo.
All the crews are now heading back for the service park break before setting out on the final two stages of this championship-deciding Wales Rally GB.
