Latvala set very best time and extended his lead to 16 seconds by Loeb who is second. Loeb lost couple of seconds at the end of stage 5 as he explains that he is destroyed tyres. He said: “I felt I destroyed completely the front tyres”.
Sebastien Ogier suffer in stage 5 with a rear puncture and lost a lot of time. Ogier had a puncture at about 9 km from the start of all 35 km stage. He stopped and change the damages wheel.
The big pretender for the world champion title Mikko Hirvonen is third but far at over 1-Minute delay.
Petter Solberg is out of the rally in day 1 after a accident in a heavy dust. He explains: “It was unbelievable dusty, I’ve never experienced anything like it. You could not see and it got worse and worse for everybody behind. I couldn’t see two centimetres away. Ken Block hit the same thing, so did Tanak. I’m very disappointed because all of my sponsors are here this weekend.”
Solberg praised a group of spectators who positioned a rock in front of the culvert to prevent other drivers from hitting it.
1. Latvala 1:30:35.8
2. Loeb +16.0
3. Hirvonen +1:00.2
4. Sordo +1:31.9
5. Ogier +1:51.9
6. Meeke +2:19.6