Ogier takes the Lead of Rally Germany
Sebastien Ogier eased himself clear of his Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala on the Friday afternoon stages of Rally Germany after Latvala had closed in on the World Rally champion through the morning, leading the rally by a tenth of a second before Ogier took command and established a 9.5-second lead over his team mate through the afternoon.
A mistake from Citroen's Kris Meeke as he tried to keep in touch with third-placed Andreas Mikkelsen, ensured the three Volkswagen team mates look likely to fill the podium steps at the end of the rally. Meeke lost almost two minutes and fell to 11th when he crashed into a field on the Waxweiler stage, breaking a front compression strut in the incident.
His makeshift repair couldn't prevent him losing 10 further minutes as he limped through the remaining stages and Meeke?s bad luck elevated the battling Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville to fourth and fifth. Elfyn Evans managed to stay clear of his recovering M-Sport team-mate Ott Tanak for sixth and 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.
Top Ten Positions after SS8:
Pos .... Driver .... Team .... Car .... Gap
1 Sebastien Ogier Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 1h19m13.5s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 9.5s
3 Andreas Mikkelsen Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 34.9s
4 Dani Sordo Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m06.8s
5 Thierry Neuville Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m08.7s
6 Elfyn Evans M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 1m22.1s
7 Ott Tanak M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 1m27.8s
8 Hayden Paddon Hyundai Motorsport N Hyundai 1m31.4s
9 Mads Ostberg Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 1m35.4s
10 Stephane Lefebvre Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 2m27.3s
21st August, 2015