WRC: Ogier cruising as teammates battle

Sebastien Ogier enjoyed a relaxed morning loop in the Rally Catalunya lead, as Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen's battle for second looks likely to go down to the wire.

Ogier, understandably, didn't take any unnecessary risks through the opening three Sunday stages and has an unassailable lead of 49 seconds going into the afternoon loop. His Volkswagen teammates remain locked in an intense battle in his wake.

Mikkelsen topped the opening two stages of the morning, while Latvala was fastest on SS20 by 0.5s, meaning the overall gap between the two going into the afternoon is just 0.9s.

Dani Sordo was hoping to take the fight to the VWs after losing out on Saturday, but the Spaniard doesn't seem to have the pace to challenge, dropping back to 14.9s adrift. He is comfortably fourth by 45.3s, though, and shouldn't be under any immediate pressure from Mads Ostberg.

Ostberg, who was 2.2s behind Citroen teammate Meeke after SS18, regained fifth place when Meeke spun on SS19. Meeke is now 6.8s adrift of his teammate and has Hyundai driver Hayden Paddon for company.

Like Meeke, Neuville also struggled through SS19 and spun. This gifted seventh place to Paddon, who was quicker than Neuville through the final two stages of the morning - the gap between the two is now 9.4s.

Martin Prokop once again had a clean run and remains ninth, with WRC2 leader Pontus Tidemand almost four minutes back in 10th.

Eric Camilli, who was third overall in the WRC2 standings, stopped on SS19, gifting the place to championship leader Nasser Al-Attiyah. If Tidemand goes on to win the class on the rally, Al-Attiyah only needs to finish third to wrap up the title.

M-Sport drivers Elfyn Evans and Ott Tanak rejoined under Rally2, with the latter getting the better of his teammate through all three stages.

Robert Kubica's woes continued as he hit a barrier on SS20. The Pole is currently more than 12 minutes down on the leader.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS20:

Originally on Autosport.com