WRC Poland, British GP supports

WRC - Poland: Not great from Latvala, he's 4.4s slower than Ogier and therefore now 6s behind in their battle for (most likely) third overall.

The Finn admits there were a few dicey moments on that stage.

WRC - Poland: It's quite close on stage pace, we're looking at Mikkelsen being a bit quicker than Ogier but Latvala being very slightly slower.

Leader Tanak is now on the stage but yet to pass split one. That shows just how far apart Ogier and Tanak are in the running order today - even on a long one, the Estonian is only just starting as the Frenchman finishes.

WRC - Poland: By the mid-way point of SS5, Mikkelsen is 3s quicker than Ogier, but Latvala is a bit slower than the champion so his third place might be OK after all.

The man we've got to measure Mikkelsen against is his lead rival Tanak, who won't be starting the stage for a few minutes yet.

WRC - Poland: In WRC2, Lappi is absolutely storming away, though we need to wait for Kruuda (who is a fair way down the start order) to see how the complete lead battle looks.

When it's pointed out to Lappi that his is a pretty good time, he smiles and replies: "we lost 9s to Ogier..."

VW World Rally Car vs Skoda WRC2 car...

One man who might not be featuring in that WRC2 battle for long is Citroen ace Lefebvre, who had an impact on that stage that damaged his radiator. His time was still decent but there's no service today and he was losing a lot of fluid.

WRC - Poland: So right now this is distilling into Tanak versus Mikkelsen for the lead, Ogier versus Latvala for third, everyone else versus everyone else for fifth onwards.

WRC - Poland: And now for the final stage of the morning, and it's the day's big beast.

Meeke's co-driver Nagle describes it for us:

SS5 Stanczyki (24.3 miles)

This is the biggest stage of the rally and it's got a bit of everything in there: fast, technical stuff, junctions – every character this rally has is in this stage somewhere.

In this kind of stage, the tempo of the pace notes can change quite a lot – you use the tone of voice a lot when you're slowing the driver down from a fast and flowing section into a square or hairpin corner.

There's a lot of detail in the notes in this stage, especially in the narrow stuff, it's so important to have the car placed in the right position on the road.

Whether we are coming through a flat-out section of road twice as wide as the car or a place where the road's only as wide car itself, the speed's the same and the notes have to be absolutely accurate.

Ogier, Ostberg and Mikkelsen are onto the stage.

WRC - Poland: Only ninth fastest for Kubica there, and that drops him behind Neuville.

Kubica is chilled about that: "We are trying to drive well without any risks. So far, all good."

He thinks his pace notes are a bit too slow in places and he could've been more confident.

WRC - Poland: Good stuff from two of the Hyundais here - Neuville is third fastest, which has pulled him clear of Evans overall, and Paddon has just jumped Meeke.

WRC - Poland: Evans, Meeke, Neuville and Sordo are all off Ogier's pace in the dust. Few more cars before we see how Tanak gets on.

WRC - Poland: Latvala is 3.4s slower than Ogier and that swaps them in the overall order, Ogier now ahead by 1.7s.

Will that be for second or third overall? It depends how bad that dust problem is when Tanak gets there.

Here's Latvala's view:

"There were some corners I just couldn't see. It was not nice. I was really struggling in some places."

He thinks the next stage will be better as it's more open, whereas this one has a large forest element.

WRC - Poland: Mikkelsen is nine tenths slower than Ogier at the end of the stage. Latvala is on course to lose a few seconds, and that might drop him behind Ogier for third overall.

WRC - Poland: Both Mikkelsen and Latvala are slower on the splits than Ogier. Going to be fascinating to hear their explanations for that. Is Ogier just being mega or is the road-cleaning issue just not such a big deal here?

WRC - Poland: Not the sharpest start to this one from second-place-overall man Mikkelsen so far, he's slightly slower than Ogier at split one.

Ogier, in road cleaning mode as it's Friday, is fourth overall right now.

WRC - Poland: Right, that's breakfast pudding cleared too, here's Meeke's co-driver Nagle's guide to SS4, which is about to start:

SS4 Babki (9.10 miles)

This stage has a sandier surface than the first two today, which means we'll get some ruts coming for the second pass. Interestingly this one contains about the only two jumps on the rally and predictably, they're very quick.

Like all the stages, this one runs through the countryside rather than in the woods and between the trees. This is where the notes really work because looking at the road it can be quite deceptive and it's hard to read it.

We actually use that word deceptive in the notes a few times – I'll have 'DEC' written in the notes and that just raises Kris' awareness that the next corners aren't what they might seem on sight.

WRC - Poland: Half an hour until the next stage, so let's take a pause and publish some cool news about Sebastien Loeb and the Dakar Rally...

WRC - Poland: Very solid run from Kubica - he's sixth quickest on the stage.

Paddon's pace means the Pole loses a spot overall, but that keeps him a decent seventh, just ahead of Neuville, Evans and Sordo.

"It was OK," says Kubica, as he says at most stage ends. "No big dramas. Smooth driving. Good."

WRC - Poland: DAVID EVANS: Elfyn Evans has emerged as the new Richard Burns of pacenotes. The 2001 World Rally champion had incredibly detailed notes, often making three corners out of one for co-driver Robert Reid to describe.

Evans is on the same page as RB, with four different speed variations available to each call.

And his numbering system's a bit odd as well. Instead of the gear-related one to six (one being a first-gear bend and sixth being, you guessed it…), the Welshman's notes go from three to nine, with nine being the tightest and three being the quickest.

Dan Barritt's written lots of threes this week.

WRC - Poland: Paddon says he's having to "second guess" his pace notes and drive faster than the notes are telling him as he's been a bit too conservative in his planning. That sounds hairy.

WRC - Poland: Great stuff from Paddon, he's third quickest behind Mikkelsen and Latvala.

Overall that shoots him up from the bottom end of the top 10 to fifth (till Tanak arrives), just four tenths off Meeke.

WRC - Poland: No big dramas behind Meeke's time loss, by the way, just feeling his rhythm wasn't superb.