WRC Tour of Corsica: Jari-Matti Latvala pulls away from Elfyn Evans
Jari-Matti Latvala extended his and Volkswagen's Tour of Corsica lead over M-Sport's Elfyn Evans to 32.7 seconds, with just Sunday's powerstage to run
Latvala ensured he kept it clean and controlled through the morning loop, all the while being consistently quicker than Evans.
If Evans is hoping for a possible slip up by the Finn on the powerstage he may be disappointed, as Latvala confirmed at the end of SS8 that he won't be taking any unnecessary risks.
"No risks, I need to be clever now," said Latvala. "I am just thinking about the rally."
Evans will now be more concerned with the threat from behind from Andreas Mikkelsen, who is now just 9.8s adrift of the Welshman in the next VW.
"He's been driving really well today and maybe we haven't been so good," said Evans at the end of SS8.
"It was much worse than I expected and we had a few slides which knocked my confidence."
Barring any problems on the powerstage Kris Meeke will remain fourth. The Citroen driver had a poor run through SS8, blaming the choice of hard tyres as the reason why he struggled on the slippery surface.
Hayden Paddon was able to depose Meeke's team-mate Mads Ostberg from fifth overall. The Kiwi beat Ostberg on both of the morning stages, finishing third through SS8, and now has a cushion of 6.2s.
Seventh-placed Bryan Bouffier also flew through SS8 but is only 4s ahead of Dani Sordo, who was fastest on the stage and is looking to complete a brilliant comeback following his puncture on SS3.
Stephane Sarrazin and Ott Tanak complete the top 10 after Kevin Abbring was forced to retire following an off on SS8.
Julien Maurin maintained his lead over Esapekka Lappi in WRC2. Lappi took some time away from Maurin through the morning loop but is 21.6s adrift with one stage to run.
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS8:
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