WRC Rally GB: Hirvonen and Meeke battle on as Ogier dominates
Sebastien Ogier continues to cruise towards Rally GB victory, while Mikko Hirvonen is just 4.6 seconds ahead of Kris Meeke in second heading into the final stages
Meeke started Sunday with a scare when he slid his Citroen through a ditch on the Brenig opener.
He admitted he was fortunate to be able to continue, especially with barely any time loss, but the incident did damage a tyre, leaving him without a spare for the rest of the day - with no service at all on the final leg.
That didn't stop Meeke closing to within 1.6s of Hirvonen after the first of two runs over the Kinmel Park spectator stage.
Hirvonen was enraged at that point, saying that he had only been given his timecard moments before the stage start and with no time to engage his M-Sport Ford's launch control.
But he responded with a fast run on the second pass of the stage, rebuilding his advantage to 4.6s, with the very relaxed Ogier's Volkswagen still 45s clear.
Meeke admitted that he also has to think about Citroen's manufacturers' championship position, with the French firm only just ahead of M-Sport and Hyundai in second in the standings.
At present it's on course to cement that result, with Meeke's team-mate Mads Ostberg running fourth.
Two stage wins on Brenig and Alwen pulled Ostberg clear of Thierry Neuville and Elfyn Evans's close battle for fifth.
Jari-Matti Latvala was quickest on both runs of Kinmel Park but is still 33.5s behind seventh-placed Ott Tanak, despite an earlier puncture for the Estonian.
Henning Solberg had to retire on the road section to Kinmel due to a fuel leak, elevating Martin Prokop and Hayden Paddon to ninth and 10th, with Robert Kubica just outside the points.
Saturday pacesetter Andreas Mikkelsen's wild weekend ended when he crashed his VW for good on the second stage of the morning.
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