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Rally GB 2017

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Confirmation that Ogier did pick up a puncture on that stage. That will have used his one spare tyre, and there's still another dark and foggy stage to go tonight... He's now stopped on the road section working on the car.
Here's a look at the incredible time spread on that stage:

1 Latvala 7m58.0s
2 Paddon +0.5s
3 Mikkelsen +11.5s
4 Ogier +12.2s
5 Lappi +13.4s
6 Meeke +17.7s
7 Evans +27.3s
8 Tanak +31.4s
9 Neuville +33.8s
10 Breen +52.6s
Toyota says Hanninen won't restart tomorrow after his crash on the Cholmondeley Castle spectator stage this afternoon.

Such a sad way for his final competitive outing with the team to end - he'll miss Australia as the team is only fielding Latvala and Lappi there, and has lost his seat to Tanak for 2018.
So we don't know too much about what happened on that stage as most of those who had problems or reason to be furious didn't stop to speak to reporters.

But the outcome is Evans survives with a huge lead, Ogier is up from fourth to second, Neuville drops from second to third, Tanak from third to sixth but just 15.4s covers Ogier, Neuville, stage winner Latvala, Mikkelsen and Tanak in second to sixth places.

TV crews suggest Ogier went off the road and picked up damage and a puncture on that stage. It must've been relatively late on as his time loss was less severe than many others'.
So, leaderboard now:

1 Evans
2 Ogier +49.8s
3 Neuville +52.8s
4 Latvala +54.1s
5 Mikkelsen +57.4s
6 Tanak +1m05.2s
7 Meeke +1m21.0s
8 Paddon +2m00.0s
9 Lappi +2m39.2s
10 Sordo +3m02.7s
Evans is only seventh fastest, 27s slower than Latvala's pace, but with the likes of Neuville and Tanak struggling so badly too, the Welshman's lead is still 49.8s.

Crikey.
Tanak is only seventh fastest, 31s off the pace, and he falls from third to a provisional sixth!

He's lost out to Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen there.
Reports from the stage that Ogier is carrying damage. It didn't stop him being fourth fastest, though.
Just to heighten the suspense, the timing system has decided not to transmit a split from rally leader Evans's car. Cheers.
Here's Latvala on how to master driving blind in the dark: "When the conditions are difficult, sometimes you have to adapt if you don't have a chance in the daylight!"
Ogier is fourth fastest, 12s off the pace, but that puts him back ahead of championship rival Neuville by 3s! Will they be second and third overall or further back?
Meeke describes the visibility in the fog as "completely crazy. You can't see 10 metres. It's hellishly tricky".
Tanak is currently on course to at least lose second to Ogier.
That time means Neuville is only 1.3s ahead of Latvala now, the title chaser could have dropped from second to fourth depending on how Tanak and Ogier fare on the rest of the stage.
Tanak is struggling too, he's lost 10s to Ogier at the first split.
Neuville has lost a lot of time! He's 33s off the pace set by Latvala and Paddon!
Not sure why Sordo lost time as he declined to stop to speak to stage-end reporters, but whatever the drama was has dropped him behind Lappi into 10th.
Latvala comes in fastest by 0.5s over Paddon, which brings him past Mikkelsen into a provisional fifth overall, 3.3s ahead of the Hyundai.
Ogier's first split is in and he's 5s faster than Neuville, whose charge earlier today meant they were 16s apart.
Not great for title chaser and current second place man Thierry Neuville either - he's nearly 8s off Latvala's split one benchmark.

Neuville's championship rivals Tanak and Ogier are on the stage now too, as is rally leader Elfyn Evans.
Meeke hasn't fared well there. He's only fourth fastest, 17.2s off Paddon's benchmark. That means Meeke's gap to Mikkelsen - who will either be fifth or sixth - up to 23.6s.
"In some parts you can't even see beyond the bonnet, and these are the sections where it's flat-out in fifth gear," says Paddon at the stage end.
Jari-Matti Latvala has made a great start to this one - he's fastest on the split and has taken 4.7s off Mikkelsen, which is half the gap between them in fifth and sixth.
Lappi reports that fog is closing in on the stage, which he says both makes it easy to make a mistake and creates an opportunity for anyone willing to be brave.

Asked what his approach was, he replies: "very slow!"
Mikkelsen is in, 11s slower than Paddon. And trouble for Sordo - he's lost a minute!
Speaking of Meeke - you've all read about his lack of rear wing earlier, and his surprise at being told it was gone. Here it is in photoform. Replacement now fitted! -JACK BENYON

Speaking of Meeke - you've all read about his lack of rear wing earlier, and his surprise at being told it was gone. Here it is in photoform. Replacement now fitted! -JACK BENYON

Mikkelsen's first split isn't great - three seconds slower than team-mate Paddon, who's not been on Mikkelsen and Neuville's pace so far this weekend.

Has Paddon picked up speed tonight or has Mikkelsen made a mistake?

Actually it looks like Paddon is just faster at night - Meeke is 6s slower than Paddon at the same point.
Hayden Paddon beats Lappi's time by 12.9s. Paddon had a scare this afternoon when hydraulic problems hit his Hyundai. He hung on to eighth, though.
Lappi sets an after-dark benchmark of 8m11.4s, which is half a minute slower than he managed on this one in daylight this morning.
Mads Ostberg brought his Ford Fiesta back to the Deeside service park this morning after electrical problems caused the central diff to react unexpectedly on the stages. The car sits back in service, looking as sorry as Ostberg himself. The team is hoping to return tomorrow if the problem is fixed. - JACK BENYON

Mads Ostberg brought his Ford Fiesta back to the Deeside service park this morning after electrical problems caused the central diff to react unexpectedly on the stages. The car sits back in service, looking as sorry as Ostberg himself. The team is hoping to return tomorrow if the problem is fixed. - JACK BENYON

Here's how the field stands going onto it:

1 Evans
2 Neuville +46.2s
3 Tanak +1m01.1s
4 Ogier +1m04.9s
5 Mikkelsen +1m13.2s
6 Latvala +1m21.4s
7 Meeke +1m30.6s
8 Paddon +2m26.8s
9 Sordo +2m29.6s
10 Lappi +2m53.1s
We're a bit late restarting tonight as the schedule has slipped due to delays caused by the sheer volume of spectators on some stages. The after-dark running of Aberhirnant is due to begin in five minutes now.
This afternoon the field popped into England for the short Cholmondeley Castle spectator stage. We weren't expecting a lot of drama here, but we were wrong.

Sadly after a very promising morning Juho Hanninen's Toyota swansong ended with a crash in the most embarrassing of places, as he broke his suspension against a tree early on what should've been an easy stage.

He's had to retire from 10th place, which now belongs to his team-mate Esapekka Lappi.
Since we left you early this afternoon there have been a couple of key developments:

Andreas Mikkelsen had been dubious about the 10s jump-start penalty he received this morning and Hyundai queried it. The stewards' verdict went Mikkelsen's way and he got 10s back - which not only jumped him to fifth ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala but brought him to within 8.3s of Sebastien Ogier's fourth place.

And Mikkelsen has been faster than Ogier all day, so that gap may well shrink. Right now, Ogier still looks good to clinch the title tomorrow, powerstage results permitting. More cars getting between him and title rivals Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak (currently second and third) would be bad news.
Welcome back to Autosport Live's Rally GB coverage as we resume in the Welsh forests - but now in the dark.

By: Matt Beer

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