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Ostberg is a second down on Latvala on the last split, can he pull something out of the bag in the final few kilometres?
Mikkelsen is going well through SS16 and is 5.8s quicker than Solberg after the first two splits.
"Something on the transmission is broken and I had to run in rear wheel drive only," says Neuville at the end. He finished 49.0s behind Latvala.
The Belgian's car looks a right handful and seems to be lacking traction.
Neuville is winding his way through the stage and is 31.0s off the pace at the 10.0km split.
Hanninen's Hyundai crosses the line and finishes 14.4s off Latvala's time.
And he inevitably slots into third position - 36.3s behind Latvala.
Al Qassimi is the third to tackle this final stage. He was 17.3s down on Evans's second split time.
"It was very good stage," says the VW driver. "I was happy. It was a good run."
Latvala completed this stage in 8m57.8s this morning. Evans sets a benchmark of 8m59.2 this time around.
Latvala needs to keep scoring points if he is to keep his championship hopes alive. Three points today is an absolute must for the Finn.
The starting order for the powerstage is slightly different to the previous stages. It looks like this:

1 Evans
2 Latvala
3 Al Qassimi
4 Hanninen
5 Prokop
6 Neuville
7 Solberg
8 Mikkelsen
9 Ostberg
10 Hirvonen
11 Ogier


In WRC2 news, Lorenzo Bertelli has gone all politically correct.

His F*ckmatie team has become the even stranger-named Fnckmatie...
The recent WRC Commission meeting in Paris proposed the rules be changed to allow all returning drivers to score.
Both were frustrated that drivers who retired in Friday's leg were able to score.

Indeed, Hirvonen, whose Ford Fiesta RS was sidelined with alternator problems on the Friday, returned to take the final bonus point.
Ostberg and Mikkelsen both retired on the Saturday and restarted Sunday's leg under Rally 2 rules, but regulations meant they were unable to score points in the final powerstage.
There is a new rule in place for this weekend's powerstage event.

All driver are now eligible to score points in it following controversy over the scoring system in Mexico last month.
The final stage is the second pass through Loule and begins at 11:05.
SS15 results: 1 Ostberg 11m38.7s; 2 Hirvonen +6.0s; 3 Mikkelsen +9.7s; 4 Ogier +13.8s; 5 Latvala +14.2s; 6 Evans +19.5s.

Overall: 1 Ogier 3h24m38.7s; 2 Hirvonen +35.4s; 3 Ostberg +1m08.1s; 4 Mikkelsen +4m40.5s; 5 Solberg +4m49.2s; 6 Neuville +7m40.0s.
Ogier looks to have been losing a bit of time in the stage due to his tyre choice. Hirvonen, meanwhile, completes the stage in 11m52.5s.
"It was OK," said Ostberg. "I enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

We bet you did!
Ostberg sets the quickest time on SS15 - 11m38.7s! We now wait for the arrival of Hirvonen and Ogier...
Solberg's time is 11m59.8s, which means Mikkelsen is now into fourth place overall.
Looks like Prokop has had a brush with something within the stage as his front left tyre is massively down on pressure at the finish. His time is 12m16.0s.
Hanninen is the next driver to cross the finishing line - 9.1s off Latvala's ultimate pace.
Neuville safely through SS15 and does it 8.3s slower than Latvala.

"Very tricky in there," he admitted. "I had to be extra careful in the muddy section."
Latvala sets a time of 11m52.9s and admits he has his eyes on the final stage of the event.

"This test we tried to take very carefully," he said. "I think we managed to save the tyres (for the powerstage)."
Evans completes the stage in 11m58.2s

"The last 4km here was very wet in places," he says. "It was not easy to pick your places where you could and couldn't lean on the car."
The Finn has readdressed the balance and is 0.7s up by the second interval.
The Welshman's time at the first split - located 3.5km into the stage - is 2m36.7s
Evans is onto the penultimate stage, which is 16.21km in distance.
The closest battle at the moment is between Solberg and Mikkelsen with just 2.7s separating them in their fight for fourth, so that'll definitely be something to keep an eye on during the next stage.

By: Dan Cross, David Evans, Scott Mitchell, Charles Bradley

Published: