Today’s route took in nine stages - two run in darkness - and 142.32 competitive kilometres in the Welsh forests to the south west of Deeside. Ogier started the day with 13.5 seconds in hand to Meeke and the Frenchman has steadily increased his lead throughout the day, his only drama being time dropped when he was forced to stop in SS11 when Thierry Neuville’s i20 WRC was blocking the road after the Belgian rolled. While Ogier temporarily lost the lead to Meeke as a consequence, the dropped time was later reinstated and he is now on track to record his eighth victory of the season. Like Ogier, Meeke has run without problems and remains focused on maintaining his position to secure valuable points for Citroën in the Manufacturers’ Championship. Mikkelsen has battled small problems today; the Norwegian slowed thinking he had a puncture in the second stage and has struggled with a damper problem, but he has also set three fastest times to consolidate his third position.

Behind the leading trio, Ott Tanak has moved from sixth last night to fourth this evening. The Estonian set one fastest stage time but also benefitted when Mads Østberg had a puncture, and also slid wide and got stuck in a ditch. He has also struggled throughout the day with water in the foot well of the car. Dani Sordo moved up to fourth this morning but then dropped back with a gear selection problem, resulting in him stalling and then hitting a barrier later in the stage. Team-mate Hayden Paddon has had similar issues with the gearbox and was then involved in a bizarre collision with Martin Prokop on a road section. Paddon’s i20 WRC was undamaged but Prokop was forced into retirement with a broken radiator. Elfyn Evans has moved one place up the leaderboard into seventh after an uneventful day, but he is within striking distance of Paddon. Behind eighth-placed Østberg, Stephane Lefebvre continues his impressive Rally GB world rally car debut and he has a minute in hand to Robert Kubica who rounds off the top 10. Jari-Matti Latvala was again forced onto the side-lines, this time with a broken drive-shaft.

In the FIA WRC 2 Championship, Eric Camilli tops the category and is 35 seconds ahead of Teemu Suninen, while Ole Christian Veiby leads the two-wheel drive WRC 3 Championship contenders.

Wales Rally GB – Unofficial Results after Section 5