WRC Rally Germany
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Now we have the WRC2 leaders. The secondary class has been phenomenal this weekend.
Next through are two old-spec World Rally Cars - amateur Jourdan Serderidis, who's on course for something around 18th, and European Rally Championship star Marijan Griebel, who's going to come away with an excellent eighth place.
Griebel won the chance to do a WRC round in an old-spec car with his triumph in the ERC U28 battle last year. He ended up using the prize fund mostly for his 2018 ERC campaign, but was also able to put together this outing on his home WRC event in the PH Sport-run car.
Griebel won the chance to do a WRC round in an old-spec car with his triumph in the ERC U28 battle last year. He ended up using the prize fund mostly for his 2018 ERC campaign, but was also able to put together this outing on his home WRC event in the PH Sport-run car.
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"It just seemed to snap on me when I touched the grass," says Evans. "I don't think it would've happened for me today anyway looking at the rest of the stage."
By 'it', he means powerstage points.
By 'it', he means powerstage points.
Stopwatch
Evans sets a powerstage benchmark of 7m41.6s, but the spin means that'll easily be beaten.
At the start of today, you'd have predicted that the championship standings without powerstage bonuses would look like this:
1 Neuville 165
2 Ogier 140
3 Tanak 134
That was based on Tanak winning with Neuville fourth and Ogier sixth.
Now we're currently on target for this:
1 Neuville 171
2 Ogier 144
3 Tanak 134
The powerstage is scored on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis, not enough to change any positions there but enough to have an impact with the fight quite finely poised.
1 Neuville 165
2 Ogier 140
3 Tanak 134
That was based on Tanak winning with Neuville fourth and Ogier sixth.
Now we're currently on target for this:
1 Neuville 171
2 Ogier 144
3 Tanak 134
The powerstage is scored on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis, not enough to change any positions there but enough to have an impact with the fight quite finely poised.
Crash
Mads Ostberg, Latvala and Sordo are all missing from this stage after their morning retirements, but we do have Elfyn Evans - back under Rally2 after his Saturday error.
Evans is a distant 25th overall so his hope of points is powerstage bonuses - and he won't be getting any of those as he's spun just a few corners into the stage.
Evans is a distant 25th overall so his hope of points is powerstage bonuses - and he won't be getting any of those as he's spun just a few corners into the stage.
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Latvala kindly provided us with our notes for this Bosenberg stage. Sorry you won't be on the road to enjoy it yourself, Jari-Matti. Horrible luck.
"I really like this stage. It’s in the countryside and quite similar to the last one we did on Saturday night.
"It has mostly really nice flowing corners and there’s good grip in the surface.
"After a couple of days on roads where the rhythm is changing a lot all of the time from fast to slow, it’s nice to go into a stage where you can get into a groove and keep the momentum.
"There are a couple of places where the road dives into the forest, but otherwise it’s generally quite wide and through the fields.
"It’s going to be a good stage to decide this rally and some really interesting battles."
"I really like this stage. It’s in the countryside and quite similar to the last one we did on Saturday night.
"It has mostly really nice flowing corners and there’s good grip in the surface.
"After a couple of days on roads where the rhythm is changing a lot all of the time from fast to slow, it’s nice to go into a stage where you can get into a groove and keep the momentum.
"There are a couple of places where the road dives into the forest, but otherwise it’s generally quite wide and through the fields.
"It’s going to be a good stage to decide this rally and some really interesting battles."
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And this is the order starting this stage:
1 Tanak
2 Neuville +32.6s
3 Lappi +57.0s
4 Ogier +1m34.6s
5 Suninen +1m54.5s
6 Mikkelsen +1m59.1s
7 Breen +2m35.0s
1 Tanak
2 Neuville +32.6s
3 Lappi +57.0s
4 Ogier +1m34.6s
5 Suninen +1m54.5s
6 Mikkelsen +1m59.1s
7 Breen +2m35.0s
Autosport
We started today with Tanak cruising up front, Sordo versus Latvala for second, Neuville a tentative fourth and Ogier on the cusp of taking sixth.
Then Sordo crashed, Latvala's transmission died and suddenly Neuville was fourth and Ogier was second.
Here's the full summary of the early stages today:
Then Sordo crashed, Latvala's transmission died and suddenly Neuville was fourth and Ogier was second.
Here's the full summary of the early stages today:
Welcome back to our live coverage from Rally Germany as we prepare for the powerstage. The rally order looks pretty settled, but with the title battle hotting up these bonus points matter now.
Autosport
Here's the full afternoon report. Tomorrow morning we'll bring you a news update on Autosport.com following the first two early stages, then be back with full live coverage of the powerstage from 11.15am UK time: 
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SS15 summary:
* Breen runs wide and breaks suspension, dropping from sixth to 10th
* Ogier very nearly takes sixth but ends the day 0.5s behind Mikkelsen
* Tanak has a huge lead still
* Latvala closes to within 0.8s of Sordo for second
* Breen runs wide and breaks suspension, dropping from sixth to 10th
* Ogier very nearly takes sixth but ends the day 0.5s behind Mikkelsen
* Tanak has a huge lead still
* Latvala closes to within 0.8s of Sordo for second
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SS15 results
Leading stage times
1 Latvala 6m05.6s
2 Lappi +0.4s
3 Ogier +0.5s
4 Suninen +1.3s
5 Tanak +2.0s
6 Neuville +2.2s
Overall leaderboard
1 Tanak
2 Sordo +43.7s
3 Latvala +44.5
4 Neuville +52.5s
5 Lappi +58.8s
6 Mikkelsen +1m50.7s
7 Ogier +1m51.2s
8 Suninen +1m57.0s
9 Ostberg +2m20.4s
10 Breen +2m34.4s
Leading stage times
1 Latvala 6m05.6s
2 Lappi +0.4s
3 Ogier +0.5s
4 Suninen +1.3s
5 Tanak +2.0s
6 Neuville +2.2s
Overall leaderboard
1 Tanak
2 Sordo +43.7s
3 Latvala +44.5
4 Neuville +52.5s
5 Lappi +58.8s
6 Mikkelsen +1m50.7s
7 Ogier +1m51.2s
8 Suninen +1m57.0s
9 Ostberg +2m20.4s
10 Breen +2m34.4s
Meanwhile Tanak completes Saturday with a 43s lead. Three stages to go tomorrow and he can take it pretty easy.
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Ogier doesn't quite get Mikkelsen - he's 0.5s shy of taking sixth there.
"I pushed as much as I can. Now it's full-risk because I have nothing to lose anymore."
"I pushed as much as I can. Now it's full-risk because I have nothing to lose anymore."
Neuville is fourth fastest so far. He admits he's in a quandary - knowing that he's so close to taking second place but also to losing a golden chance to take a load of points off Ogier whatever he does. He confesses he made a bit of a mistake on that stage too.
He'll go into Sunday fourth, 8s behind Latvala and 8.8s behind Sordo.
He'll go into Sunday fourth, 8s behind Latvala and 8.8s behind Sordo.
Stopwatch
Ogier's next split is more human - fastest by half a second over Latvala. Most importantly right now, Ogier's 2.6s faster than Mikkelsen, who he's chasing for what is now sixth.
Ogier's first split time is 6s quicker than anyone else so far. We don't think that's physically possible in 2.2 miles so are ignoring that for now.
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Latvala is a happy man as he closes on second: "It was a big push, I tell you. A couple of places I was a bit wide, it was a bit of a moment, but everything went good. It's wonderful to do these fights. You really, really have to push yourself to the limit."
Ogier is onto the stage. He has to beat Mikkelsen by 3.5s to move up to sixth place.
Meanwhile Breen is frantically working on his Citroen after the stage end to make sure the car will be able to drive back to service on four wheels.
Stopwatch
Latvala is fastest so far and closes to within 0.8s of Sordo's second place! That's going to be a mega battle for tomorrow morning.
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"It looks like I lost a little bit of time here," admits Sordo. "There was more grip in some places than I expected. Not so good."
Only fourth fastest so far for Sordo - that's not ideal with Latvala on a charge. At the final split, the Toyota is 1.9s quicker than him.
Latvala takes 0.7s out of Sordo at the first split. They were just 4.3s apart for second going into this stage.
Lappi comes through fastest so far and is about to find out his Sunday will be a lot easier than he expected.
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Breen explains that shunt: "I tried. I didn't have a good start to the stage and I just got caught out. I knew the corner and I thought I'd braked enough for it."
He heads off for service. If the car can complete a rally stage at that sort of pace without that wheel coming off, you'd imagine it can do 22 miles of road pace to service OK.
He heads off for service. If the car can complete a rally stage at that sort of pace without that wheel coming off, you'd imagine it can do 22 miles of road pace to service OK.
Second-place rivals Sordo and Latvala are now onto the stage.
Breen finishes the stage. He's lost just over a minute and a half and is down to what will be 10th behind Ostberg. Can he make it to service?
Mikkelsen comes through, and his advantage over Suninen is now down to 6.3s going into the final day. What they'll be fighting for depends on Breen and Ogier.
Breen also has a 22-mile road section to cover after this stage to get back to service, and he'll need to make sure he can do that on four wheels.
On the stage so far he's lost just over 45s.
On the stage so far he's lost just over 45s.
Breen's incident also gives Lappi a very peaceful run to fifth now. They'd been battling all day.
A replay shows Breen went off at the same spot as Evans this morning - he ran wide and some kicked the back of the Citroen higher into the air.
This is already good news for Ogier, though. On pure performance Breen was likely to be out of his reach, but this gives the champion a chance to get as high as sixth.
Breen is pushing on, he'll lose time but he might be able to get back to service.
The sixth-placed Citroen gets going again, but there's a definite wobble from the left rear wheel - the suspension is broken.
Crash
Breen goes off!
Next through is Suninen, back down to ninth as his team-mate Ogier's charge begins, but 1.3s faster than Mikkelsen on the splits so far. The Hyundai driver has two M-Sport Fords to worry about tonight.
Ostberg's not-much-fun day concludes with a stall on that stage. He'll end the leg a very lonely 10th.
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Onto the final stage of the day, as described by M-Sport WRC2 co-driver Loudon:
SS15 Romerstrasse (7.63 miles)
This is a pretty quick one without many junctions and not even that many corners. You can’t believe the difference in reading notes for a stage like this one compared with seven-and-a-bit miles of somewhere like the twisty section of Panzerplatte. The drivers must think the co-drivers have lost their voices… there simply aren’t the number of notes to get through because the roads aren’t as technical.
One of the problems with these kind of quick stages is that it’s really tricky to make time up on a rival. Without the junctions to be brave for, you tend to find you’re all carrying the same sort of speed.
SS15 Romerstrasse (7.63 miles)
This is a pretty quick one without many junctions and not even that many corners. You can’t believe the difference in reading notes for a stage like this one compared with seven-and-a-bit miles of somewhere like the twisty section of Panzerplatte. The drivers must think the co-drivers have lost their voices… there simply aren’t the number of notes to get through because the roads aren’t as technical.
One of the problems with these kind of quick stages is that it’s really tricky to make time up on a rival. Without the junctions to be brave for, you tend to find you’re all carrying the same sort of speed.
By: Matt Beer
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