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WRC Rally Finland: Jari-Matti Latvala pulls away, Kris Meeke out

Jari-Matti Latvala stormed away into a 13.2-second lead over Volkswagen team-mate Sebastien Ogier at the end of day two of Rally Finland, while Kris Meeke crashed out of third

Although Ogier started Saturday afternoon by trimming a tenth of a second out of Latvala's three-second morning advantage, the Finn was unstoppable thereafter.

Even when heavy rain - which Ogier expected to help him given his road position - arrived for the Jukojarvi stage, Latvala was the pacesetter, assisted a little by his team-mate losing a few seconds when he hit a stone.

A commanding run on Surkee brought Latvala's cushion into double figures, and he then rounded the day off with another stage win on Horkka.

That performance sets him up for a second straight win on his home round of the World Rally Championship, with just two runs of the Myhinpaa stage remaining on Sunday.

Mads Ostberg is now on course to complete the podium for Citroen following his team-mate Meeke's departure from third when he ran wide and clipped a tree on Jukojarvi.

Dani Sordo was also in trouble during the afternoon, tumbling from sixth to 13th when he lost over five minutes in a ditch on the loop's opening Mokkipera stage.

His Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville benefited from Meeke's exit to rise to fourth, while Ott Tanak progressed to fifth having started the day 10th in his M-Sport Ford.

While Meeke and Sordo's mistakes helped Tanak, so did a run of top-three stages times as he caught and overcame temporary team-mate Juho Hanninen to rejoin the top five on the day's finale.

Behind Martin Prokop and the WRC2-leading Skodas of Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand, Lorenzo Bertelli is currently on course for his first point in a World Rally Car, though Sordo will be looming 25s behind him in the morning after struggling through the afternoon in his battered i20.

Points are likely to be out of reach for Elfyn Evans, but he progressed from 20th to 14th during the day following his Friday delays.

Robert Kubica, the sole Rally2 runner, crashed two corners from the end of Saturday's final stage when he rolled his RK Ford.

Follow the deciding stages of Rally Finland with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 8.40am UK time on Sunday morning

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS18:

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