WRC Rally Sweden: VW's Mikkelsen leads, Ogier starts recovery

The Frenchman, after losing the lead of the rally with a slide into a snow bank on SS9, beat Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala in the first heat of the evening on the 1.2-mile Karlstad test by 1.5s to take his fourth stage win of the day.

With Mikkelsen setting a time 1.4s off the pace in his heat against Mads Ostberg, Ogier will go into Saturday's stages 24.7s shy of the leader in fourth place.

Latvala remains over eight minutes behind the top cars in 23rd overall after getting his Polo R WRC beached on the previous stage.

Hyundai's Thierry Neuville, who easily overcame Elfyn Evans on the superspecial, managed to trim Mikkelsen's advantage by 0.6s, but now has Ostberg breathing down his neck in the fight for second.

The Citroen driver beat compatriot Mikkelsen in his heat to set the second quickest time of the evening, 0.2s slower than Ogier's benchmark, with Neuville now just three tenths ahead on the leaderboard.

Yuriy Protasov, the surprise winner of SS6 earlier in the day, and Kris Meeke won their respective heats against Henning Solberg and Martin Prokop to set the fourth and fifth quickest times of the evening.

Ott Tanak meanwhile stays fifth in the overall standings behind Ogier, his opponent and fellow Ford driver Robert Kubica limping through the superspecial, still suffering differential problems.

Haydon Paddon, who narrowly lost his bout against Hyundai team-mate Kevin Abbring, is still sixth.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS10:

AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live's minute-by-minute Rally Sweden coverage resumes from 6.45am UK time on Saturday