WRC: Crash drops Latvala out of Rally GB contention

Jari-Matti Latvala is out of contention for Rally GB victory after going off the road while chasing Sebastien Ogier on Saturday's opening stage.

Latvala was closing on his Volkswagen World Rally Championship teammate on the first splits of the Clocaenog East stage, but then made a mistake under braking and slid into a ditch.

"I was trying. I had a very, very good stage up to that point," said Latvala. "I really, really pushed, I wanted to fight for the victory.

"It was really slippery and I thought it would be fine. I stalled the engine under braking, and then I tried to turn and to restart the car but it did it really, really fast and we were into the ditch and got stuck."

Spectators helped Latvala get back on the road, but the incident cost him three minutes and dropped him to 10th overall.

Ogier now enjoys a 1m13s lead over Mikko Hirvonen's M-Sport Ford in second place.