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Rally Italy: Ogier cruising towards victory, Hirvonen crashes

Sebastien Ogier is cruising towards Rally Italy victory, while a crash for Mikko Hirvonen moved Thierry Neuville into second

Hirvonen opened the morning with the fastest time, bringing the gap over the chasing Neuville up to nine seconds.

But at the first hairpin of the next stage, Hirvonen rolled his Citroen into retirement.

All the action as it happens on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live

That put Neuville's M-Sport Ford into a potential career-best second place, although he must still watch Jari-Matti Latvala behind him.

Latvala made short work of Dani Sordo's Citroen on the opening loop - helped by the Spaniard having a quick spin - and is now 35s behind Neuville following a slight error by the M-Sport driver on SS12.

Neuville's mistake, and his more cautious pace after Hirvonen's accident, means Ogier's lead is up to 1m15s with four stages remaining.

Sordo is now fourth, with Andreas Mikkelsen closing on him slightly in the third VW.

Mads Ostberg rejoined under Rally 2 following his Friday evening crash, and is now ninth.

Robert Kubica continues to comfortably lead WRC 2.

Leading positions after SS12:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car        Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW            2h32m41.3s
 2.  Thierry Neuville    M-Sport Ford   + 1m15.9s
 3.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW             + 1m51.4s
 4.  Dani Sordo          Citroen        + 2m12.2s
 5.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW             + 2m32.1s
 6.  Martin Prokop       Czech Ford     + 6m56.0s
 7.  Michal Kosciuszko   Lotos Ford     + 9m24.4s
 8.  Elfyn Evans         M-Sport Ford   + 9m30.7s
 9.  Mads Ostberg        M-Sport Ford  + 12m17.1s
10.  Khalid Al-Qassimi   Citroen       + 13m11.8s

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