By alley - May 20, 2016, 4:01 PM ET

WRC: Meeke leads by half a minute after Friday

Kris Meeke continues to lead the Rally of Portugal ahead of World Rally Championship leader Sebastien Ogier, after the stewards

awarded Meeke a stage win

following Hayden Paddon's fiery incident.

Paddon went off on the second running of the Ponte de Lima stage, with his Hyundai i20

causing a fire

. That incident forced the stage to be neutralized, and prevented leader Meeke from setting a competitive time, leaving the overall order uncertain for most of the afternoon. The stewards later reviewed the stage and handed Meeke victory by 5.2 seconds over Hyundai's Dani Sordo.

The decision means that the Northern Irishman extends the lead he took over Ogier from the morning's loop to 31.9s.

Sordo was second for most of the afternoon, with the Spaniard's choice of harder tires giving a pace advantage over Ogier. Then a puncture on Viana do Castelo meant Sordo fell away, promoting his Volkswagen rival back into second. Even with the puncture, Sordo was able to hold onto third ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen.

Hyundai's Thierry Neuville recovered from a difficult start in the morning to hold a strong fifth place.

Stephane Lefebvre was also impressive on the afternoon loop, as he returned to the WRC for the first time since Rally Sweden, to hold sixth overall.

Mads Ostberg heads Eric Camilli in a close battle for seventh, with the M-Sport teammates split by just 3.7s.

Jari-Matti Latvala's woes continued from Rally Argentina, with a power steering issue ending his chances of a good result. Having had to physically battle his Polo for the majority of the afternoon, Latvala holds ninth overall.

WRC2 leader Pontus Tidemand is 10th overall. The Skoda driver holds a commanding lead of 35.5s over Nicholas Fuchs, despite a puncture on the afternoon loop.

Elfyn Evans had mechanical issues and a puncture, but managed to finish the day third in class.

Friday has largely been a day of attrition, with Ott Tanak forced to retire after crashing at the same location as Paddon.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS9:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Kris Meeke	Abu Dhabi Total WRT	Citroen	1h28m53.3s
2	Sebastien Ogier	Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	31.9s
3	Dani Sordo	Hyundai Motorsport	Hyundai	37.3s
4	Andreas Mikkelsen	Volkswagen Motorsport II	Volkswagen	52.3s
5	Thierry Neuville	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai	1m12.2s
6	Stephane Lefebvre	Abu Dhabi Total WRT	Citroen	1m33.5s
7	Mads Ostberg	M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford	1m46.0s
8	Eric Camilli	M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford	1m49.7s
9	Jari-Matti Latvala	Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	3m50.9s
10	Martin Prokop	Jipocar Czech National Team	Ford	4m06.4s