Sebastien Ogier has taken command in Australia after dominating throughout the second day of action. The Volkswagen driver went quickest in all of Friday’s stages bar the last one, to extend his lead to 20 seconds from second-placed Mikko Hirvonen.
M-Sport Ford’s Thierry Neuville managed to beat Kris Meeke to third place overall on the final stage of the afternoon loop; the pair go into Saturday’s SS11 separated by 0.5 seconds only.
Jari-Matti Latvala, who was the only man other than Ogier to take a stage win on Friday (SS10), is currently fifth overall and almost a full minute off the lead, with Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikkelsen not so far behind.
Khalid Al-Qassimi holds tenth place overall, 38.8 seconds clear of ninth-placed local man Nathan Quinn.
Standings after SS10: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 58:46.6 2. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen +20.0 3. Thierry Neuville M-Sport Ford +38.1 4. Kris Meeke Citroen +38.6 5. Jari-Matti Latvala VW +58.2 6. Mads Ostberg M-Sport Ford +1:01.7 7. Andreas Mikkelsen VW +1:03.8 8. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford +1:09.2 9. Nathan Quinn Italia Mini +4:02.6 10. Khalid Al Qassimi Citroen +4:41.4