Mads Ostberg maintained his Rally Catalunya lead during Friday’s afternoon leg, and although he couldn’t win any of the three stages, the Adapta Ford driver still managed to keep a 27-second gap from Loeb.
Citroen’s Sebastien Loeb moved up from fourth to second after going quickest in SS4 in improving conditions, with Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala remaining in contention for the win in third.
Mikko Hirvonen struggled to keep up with his rivals, thus dropping to fourth ahead of Ott Tanak who lost three positions and is now fifth, followed by Sebastien Ogier’s Skoda S2000.
Hans Wiejs is currently seventh on his World Rally Car debut in the Citroen previously driven by Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah.