WRC: Ogier builds Rally Germany advantage

Sebastien Ogier pulled clear of Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala through the Friday afternoon stages of Rally Germany.

Latvala closed on the World Rally champion through the morning and led by a tenth of a second, but Ogier took command by winning every stage after mid-day service.

Buoyed by a setup change to his VW Polo R WRC that proved to his liking, Ogier extended a 9.5-second lead over Latvala through the afternoon, with the Finn admitting his teammate was simply too fast to catch.

VW's podium monopoly looks increasingly secure after a mistake from Citroen's Kris Meeke as he tried to keep in touch with third-placed Andreas Mikkelsen.

Meeke lost a little under two minutes and fell to 11th when he crashed through a field on the Waxweiler stage, but a front compression strut damaged in the incident then broke. A makeshift repair couldn't prevent him losing 10 further minutes as he limped through the remaining stages.

His incident elevated the battling Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville to fourth and fifth. They swapped places twice through the afternoon before the third-fastest time for Sordo on the concluding Mittelmosel stage put him 1.9s ahead of the man who denied him victory last year.

Elfyn Evans stayed clear of his recovering M-Sport teammate Ott Tanak for sixth with a strong Mittelmosel time. The Ford Fiesta pair have Hayden Paddon and Mads Ostberg just behind them.

Junior champion Stephane Lefebvre holds an excellent 10th on his World Rally Car debut in an extra Citroen, running comfortably ahead of Hyundai's fourth man Kevin Abbring – who has had differential concerns – and Czech privateer Martin Prokop, another man to go off the road.

Robert Kubica added a further five-minute delay to the five-minute penalty for his pre-event engine change when he went off through the vineyard on Moselland and had to smash his RK Ford's windscreen in order to see where he was going thereafter.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS8:

Originally on Autosport.com