A round-up of the day’s events . The weather conditions in the early part of the day consisted of drizzle and light rain. . Sébastien Chardonnet hit the tarmac running setting the first two fastest times in WRC3 and then the second best (beaten by a few tenths) in his Citroën DS3 R3. He closed the gap to the leader, local lad Quentin Gilbert, (a member of the 2012 French Team) from 40.8s to 27.2s. . Jérémie Serieys made a cautious start in the rain in Firstplan (SS8) after which between the sheets of fog in Munster (SS9) he speeded up in the tenth stage between Soultzeren and Orbey. He put his Renault Twingo R2 Evo in 28th place overall between the Ford Fiesta R2s of the crews battling for the title in the Junior WRC. . Stéphane Lefevbre’s face was as dark as the Colmar sky! After two stunning performances, which helped him snatch second place in the R2 class from Swede Pontus Tideman, he had to lift off in SS10 as his Peugeot began to vomit oil from a defective mechanical component. Lefevbre covered the timed section and the liaison stage to the service park at reduced speed, and was given a 30-second penalty for his pains! . In the afternoon the crews covered the same stages, except that there were some sunny spells, followed by the show stage in Mulhouse, which closed the 135 timed km of the third leg. .Chardonnet continued on his merry way reducing the gap to Gilbert even further and increasing the one to Cronin, his direct pursuer in WRC3. He loves these conditions, and he proved it again like last year when he finished in the top 10 in Alsace. . The repairs made to Lefevbre’s 208 didn’t last long. On the exit from Firstplan 2 the youngest member of the French team (who, luckily, is a trained mechanic) had to fix a defective oil plug. This time the repair held. It was one piece of good news to which was added another as the winner of the 2012 Volant Junior retook first place in the R2 class (lost on Friday because of his three punctures) after his successful attacks on Tideman, and he pulled back the three minutes lost to the Spaniard Yeray Lemes who was in front of him. . Serieys finished his day on a high note in his car whose setup had been fine-tuned. In Soultzeren 2 the man from Montpelier finished just behind the first JWRC driver! Quotes Sébastien Chardonnet (no. 51 Citroën DS3 R3) “I’m starting to like this rally more and more, all the more so when the conditions are as difficult as today! I really enjoyed myself at the wheel of the Citroën DS3 R3. We’ve made big inroads into the lead of the driver who’s first in the Citroën Top Driver after we set a string of good times, and above all we’ve pulled away from the third man, Irishman, Keith Cronin, who’s now over a minute behind. It bodes well for the last leg, which we’ll tackle with the same determination and concentration as today. The most important thing is to keep your wits about you on this very tricky terrain.” Stéphane Lefevbre (no. 142 Peugeot 208 R2) “How can I best describe this day? On the one hand, it was really bad as, except in SS8, we had nothing but problems. The car started to lose oil first time thorough Munster Valley. The repairs carried out at the service halt didn’t last, and I had to do the mechanical work before each of the last three stages, which isn’t great for your peace of mind! On the other, from a results point of view, the second leg’s been very good as we’re back in the lead in the R2 class. And we won’t complain about that! I just hope that our team can find a lasting solution to help us finish the rally tomorrow.” Jérémie Sérieys (no. 143 Renault Twingo R2) “We had a difficult start this morning as the conditions were very tricky. And then at the halt in Colmar, the Renault Sport Technologies team modified the setup on the Twingo R2. It was a great help as we heated our tyres much less. Despite the fact that the roads were a lot dirtier in the afternoon than in the morning with a lot of mud in certain places, we enjoyed ourselves very much: above all in Soultzeren in SS13, where we were really able to push. We’re going to tackle the last day, which is probably going to be just as wet, with our confidence at an all-time high.” Photos available on media.fsa.org PRESS CONTACT Georges Colin – GSM: + 33 6 48 91 36 48 – Email: gcolin@ffsa.org