Sebastien Ogier has extended his Rally Portugal lead to a comfortable margin on the event’s second day after dominating Saturday’s second loop. The Frenchman goes into the final day 34.8 seconds clear of his Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.
Ogier and Latvala pulled away from the rest of the field, with Citroean driver Mikko Hirvonen now more than a minute behind the leader in third place.
M-Sport Ford team-mates Evgeny Novikov and Nasser Al-Attiyah continued their strong showing; the former is now fourth overall, almost a minute ahead of fifth-placed Al-Attiyah and three minutes behind Hirvonen.
Dani Sordo‘s hopes of a possible win evaporated when he crashed out from second-place on the first special stage of the day.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Sebastien Ogier VW 1h43m25.8s 2. Jari-Matti Latvala VW + 14.1s 3. Mikko Hirvonen Citroen + 37.2s 4. Evgeny Novikov M-Sport Ford + 2m51.6s 5. Nasser Al-Attiyah M-Sport Ford + 4m36.7s 6. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 5m24.9s 7. Michal Kosciuszko Italia Mini + 5m33.7s 8. Andreas Mikkelsen VW + 5m36.8s 9. Dennis Kuipers M-Sport Ford + 5m44.5s 10. Esapekka Lappi Skoda + 6m58.1s