After a grand victory three weeks ago in Spain, Sebastien Ogier’s all-out attack on the World Rally Championship resumed this weekend at the final round of the 2013 season in Wales, Great Britain. Ogier took the early rally lead following Thursday’s night stages and extended the gap to 20.1 seconds from Volkswagen team-mate Latvala on Friday.
Jari-Matti Latvala is enjoying a great run so far, he’s in second position, more than 40 seconds ahead of Qatar M-Sport Ford driver Thierry Neuville; the latter hasn’t been entirely comfortable on the muddy, gravel stages.
Robert Kubica’s first outing in a WRC car came to a premature end when he crashed out on Friday’s opening stage (SS4); Citroen driver Mikko Hirvonen shared the same fate when he rolled his DS3 on SS6.
Overall standings after SS9:
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 1m34m8.0s 2. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +20.1s 3. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +1m02.6s 4. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +1m30.8s 5. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +1m34.5s 6. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +1m35.6s 7. Martin Prokop Czech Ford +4m56.2s 8. Elfyn Evans M-Sport Ford +6m29.6s 9. Dani Sordo Citroen +6m54.6s 10. Mark Higgins Symtech Ford +6m56.6s