Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier has extended his advantage in Rally de España, the Frenchman pulling ahead after team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala lost nearly a minute with a puncture this morning. The Finn has nevertheless fought his way back up to second and is battling hard to hold off fellow Polo R WRC driver Andreas Mikkelsen as well as Hyundai’s Dani Sordo.

After an extended service last night, which allowed the teams to swap the rally cars from gravel to asphalt specification, today’s route covered eight stages and 123.05 competitive kilometres run fully on sealed surface roads. Ogier was quickest from the outset and the Frenchman set the fastest time in the opening two stages, narrowly extending his lead over Latvala as the Finn struggled with brake problems. It was the third stage, however, where Ogier’s lead hit nearly a minute as Latvala lost the equivalent amount of time with a puncture and dropped to fourth. Consequently, Sordo moved up the leaderboard into second, despite the Spaniard struggling with understeer most of the morning. Latvala fought back in the following stages, two fastest times aiding his charge, but the competition between himself, Sordo and Mikkelsen was so close he was unable to improve his position. In the final long stage, however, Latvala again came into his own on the fast and flowing roads to power ahead of both his rivals and reclaim second position going into the closing spectator stage on the seafront in Salou. He is now 54 seconds adrift of Ogier but more significantly fighting to stay ahead of Mikkelsen and Sordo, both of whom are within 7.4 seconds in third and fourth respectively.

Mads Østberg has had another good run today and the Norwegian holds sixth with one day remaining. Like many of his rivals he has suffered with understeer and was fifth until a stall in the final stage dropped him behind team-mate Kris Meeke, the Northern Irish driver now 1.5 seconds ahead. Hayden Paddon remains seventh this evening. The Kiwi driver lost nearly 30 seconds with a puncture in the opening stage and then dropped more time with the same problem this afternoon. He has nevertheless run well and continues to fight with rivals ahead and chasing team-mate Thierry Neuville, who rounds off the day on exactly the same overall time. Martin Prokop has moved into ninth and the top 10 is rounded off by Skoda Fabia R5 driver Pontus Tidemand, who also leads the FIA WRC 2 Championship category. Robert Kubica set some fantastic times this morning, the Pole challenging Ogier’s fastest times, and he has moved up to 16th position despite brake issues which resulted in a minor off and subsequent puncture.

There were disappointing retirements in the Ford camp today. Lorenzo Bertelli, back under Rally 2 regulations after rolling yesterday, had another accident in today’s opening stage, and the two manufacturer-supported Fiesta RS WRCs of Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans were also forced out, Tanak taking a wheel off after hitting a barrier and Evans off the road.

In the FIA Junior WRC Championship, provisional champion Quentin Gilbert is ahead of Terry Folb and Simone Tempestini, all three in Citroën DS3 R3Ts.

Rally de España – Unofficial Results after Section 7