On the last stage of the day Meeke moved up another 2 spots. He's now 8th and only 4.3sec behind 7th Raikkonen and 5.3sec behind 6th Tanak.
A lousy pic but this is Sordo's car. Caption from the team: "As you can see below, the damage to Dani's MINI John Cooper Works WRC #37 was not that heavy. And the best news about it is that Dani and Carlos will be back in action at Rally GB on Saturday. Thumbs up!"
Good videos are few and far between so far. This is another from the shakedown but there's some good stuff of you hold out through the intro. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_0zrDvsYtA]Shakedown - 2011 WRC Wales Rally GB - Best-of-RallyLive.com - YouTube[/ame]
Wow, I fully realize that "crap happens" and is expected, but where would Kris be right now if the belt had not blown? Jim
As the team predicted, Sordo is running again today. He finished this stage 6th, Meeke 9th. Meeke is up to 6th overall and Sordo 52nd. SS12: Error harms Latvala’s attack (wrc.com)
Meeke's MINI has a significant issue, finishes the stage 9th, Sordo 4th. Overall classification: Meeke still 6th, Sordo up to 50th. SS13: Meeke fighting power loss (wrc.com)
If Meeke's diagnosis is correct (see below) I can't believe he's still in the top 10. He's still 6th, Sordo up to 46th. Meanwhile, Araujo is up to 11th, not sure of the other MINI drivers at the moment. SS14: Wilson moves up in Wales (wrc.com)
No turbo, intermittent shifter, broken motor mount and still holding position. Prodrive has built one heck of a car there. Poor Kris. Other then his roll in France, all his problems have been mechanical. They are going to have to beef up a few things on his car. Jim
Amazing what can be done in 30 minutes, now to see how it holds up... Meeke’s MINI as good as new (wrc.com)
He's definitely back up to speed for now. He took 4th posn on stage 15 (Sordo came in 6th) and moved back up to 5th overall with 55sec needed to catch H. Solberg in 4th.
With Ostberg ailing and with a little bit of luck, a podium for Kris is definitely not out of the question. :fingerscrossed: Amazing comeback from their standing not more than 48 hours ago.