WRC Spain, Sepang MotoGP

ERC - Valais: Meanwhile, over in Switzerland, Lappi continues to lead comfortably with only a stage remaining of the day.

Kajetanowicz remains second after winning SS9, 19.1s adrift of Lappi, with Breen now up to third after erstwhile leader dropped a chunk of time on SS10 with a front-left puncture.

Here are how things look after SS10:

1) Lappi 1hr05m41.0s
2) Kajetanowicz +19.1s
3) Breen +1m03.5s
4) Wiegand +1m12.6s
5) Carron +1m16.4s

WRC - Spain: Block remains 11th after that stage, and has just 8 seconds to make up on WRC-2 leader Al-Attiyah after SS7 to move into the final points paying position.

The Qatari has extended his class lead as Chardonnet, along with Nicolas Fuchs, have both retired after SS7.

That means second in class is now Maurin, a whole two minutes down on Al-Attiyah, with Ireland's Robert Barrable a further 2m27s back in third.

WRC - Spain: Kubica comes through, but he's also lost a chunk of time, 31.3s slower than Ogier, which sees the Pole fading from the fight for the podium positions.

WRC - Spain: Sordo goes fifth quickest with a time 17.8s down on Ogier, while Paddon a suspected puncture for Paddon costs the New Zealander 47.6s to the rally leader.

Sainz Lancia

WRC - Spain: While we wait for the rest of the WRC runners to come through, here's a shot taken by DAVID EVANS of a Lancia Delta HF Integrale in the Repsol colours used by local hero Carlos Sainz in 1993.

Great car and great livery, but that was a season to forget for Sainz, who only finished on the podium once in nine events (second on the Acropolis) and retired five times, including here in Spain when an electrical fault halted the car known as the 'Deltona'.

WRC - Spain: Ostberg drops 2.2s to Hirvonen after losing time in Neuville's dust. That will leave him third, a few tenths behind Latvala.

Neuville meanwhile lost a total of 2m24s, which will drop him down to ninth overall.

WRC - Spain: Hirvonen completes the stage two tenths down on Mikkelsen, also dropping behind Latvala in the overall standings.

Neuville's time loss will be north of two minutes, and the next man on the road, Ostberg, is likely to be affected by the dust-cloud generated by the Hyundai.

WRC - Spain: Mikkelsen drops six seconds to Latvala on that stage, enough to cost him his fourth place - this is a great opportunity for Ostberg to tighten his grip on what is now likely to be second overall after Neuville's issues.

WRC - Spain: Ogier has laid down the gauntlet with a benchmark of 22m46.1s, a time that both of the other two works VWs seem set to miss by some margin.

It seems that Neuville had to stop to change a puncture, but it's not clear yet how much time that cost him.

WRC - Spain: Ogier goes off the road after the flying finish after a momentary lapse in concentration, but it doesn't look like anything serious.

On the other hand, Neuville's hopes of victory could be up in smoke - he's stopped on the stage...

WRC - Spain: Neuville got his stage off to a good start, going 0.8s quicker than Ogier through the opening split, but was 5.0s down at the second.

Hirvonen meanwhile looks set to gain some time back on Mikkelsen, going 2.7s faster through the third split.

VW iPhone Beckham

WRC - Spain: On the subject of Volkswagen, DAVID EVANS has to thank the Hannover outfit for the journey to Barcelona for last night’s superspecial stage and press conference.

Communications chief Andre Dietzel put his team-mates Julien Ingrassia, Ola Floene and Miikka Anttila to shame by guiding us through the Barca rush hour with his iPhone.

Who needs a roadbook anyway…

WRC - Spain: Some split times for you as the lead runners make their way through SS7 - Latvala is 6.5s down on Ogier at the third split, with Mikkelsen 4.1s down at the second.

Latvala sandwich

WRC - Spain: Latvala spent his lunchtime deep in conversation with his engineers. His car spent the morning in Australia-specification now but goes out this afternoon in Sardinian configuration.

But he wasn’t about to blame the car - Latvala found fault with himself as well.

“I made all the mistakes I could possibly make this morning. Understeer, oversteer, bad driving, hitting the ARMCO, overshooting, needing to take the handbrake…”

And, almost as bad as all that, his in-control sandwich (cheese and ham on what looked like wheatgerm) was falling to bits as well, as DAVID EVANS spotted earlier today.

WRC - Spain: With Latvala so far back, Ogier doesn't need to take any risks in this stage - as long as he outscores the Finn this weekend, Ogier is champion.

That gives Neuville an opportunity for his second WRC win, and if he can replicate his performance from the previous stage, the Hyundai driver could well find himself leading the overnight standings.

The other main battles to watch will be the all-Norwegian fight for third as Mikkelsen seeks to close down Ostberg, while Latvala will be desperate to clear Hirvonen and Kubica and move up the leaderboard.

WRC - Spain: The second run through the Terra Alta test, the longest of the day, has begun.

Ogier will be first through, closely followed by VW team-mates Latvala and Mikkelsen. Then it will be Hirvonen, Neuville and Ostberg.

WRC-2 - Spain: Before the final stage of the day gets under way in a few minutes' time, it's time for quick glance at the state of play in the intermediate class.

Nasser Al-Attiyah leads after SS5 by a commanding 27.1s from Sebastien Chardonnet, with Julien Maurin a further 33.6s back.

The Qatari is only eight points away from the points lead held by Lorenzo Bertelli, who retired yesterday with damage to the front-right wheel but is back in action today under Rally2 rules.

WRC - Spain: Catalunya is Ken Block's sole WRC appearance of the year, and Evans' woes move the American up to 11th overall despite ending that stage with a puncture.

Block admitted to DAVID EVANS earlier that he’s finding it tough to get back into the World Rally Car after so long with 600 horses under the bonnet and stickier boots beneath him.

He didn’t enjoy the asphalt in Terra Alta: “It was a high-speed liaison section to get to the next dirt road,” he said.

He did like the number of fans out and about, though: “It’s crazy how many people are around. Last night in Barcelona they were everywhere cheering us on.

"I got a slightly slower time on the stage because I was sliding around to give them something to cheer! Even on the tests we did, we had loads of people at the side of the road.”

He had salad for lunch. And said “stoked” once.

WRC - Spain: And here's the last of the manufacturer runners, Kubica, who goes fifth fastest with a time 1.2s quicker than Latvala - the pair are now level for sixth overall.

The Pole said that he spotted team-mate Evans off the stage a couple of miles from the end.

WRC - Spain: Back in Catalunya, Sordo is at the end of the stage, having lost 35 seconds to Neuville.

His explanation was that, seemingly due to a simple error by co-driver Marc Marti, they were sat at the start of the stage waiting for another minute to elapse before finally getting going!

Meanwhile, Paddon is through fourth quickest, 3.5s slower than the red-hot Neuville.

ERC - Valais: With Evans off the road and Sordo not expected at the finish for a little while yet, here's a quick update on the state of affairs in Valais.

Esapekka Lappi continues to lead, but is now 14.6s ahead of Katejan Kajetanowicz, Sepp Wiegand slipping to third through an apparent lack of confidence.

Breen meanwhile took a third stage win of the morning to move up to eighth overall, just over a minute shy of Lappi - a top five finish for the Irishman is realistic if he can stay out of trouble.

WRC - Spain: Here's Ostberg, who goes third quickest, 2.7s down on Neuville and 0.3s down on Mikkelsen, his new rival in the fight for third overall.

Further back on the stage, things are looking bleak for Sordo, who is 28s down on Neuville at the first split, while we're hearing than Evans is off again.

WRC - Spain: Mikkelsen goes quicker than his two senior VW team-mates, beating Ogier by 2.9s and edging away from Latvala in the battle for sixth.

Hirvonen could well lose fourth place if he doesn't set a strong time in this test.

WRC - Spain: As the lead runners make their way through SS6, here's an update on what happened to Kris Meeke this morning from DAVID EVANS:

The Citroen star said: “About three kilometres in [to SS3], I ran wide on a fast left-hander. I arrived too fast to be honest – it wasn’t a problem with dust or anything like that. I just ran wide.

"There was nothing on the outside, it just dropped a wheel about foot down off the road. I didn’t lose any time, but it pushed the rear tyre off the rim.”

Meeke added that there was a degree of confusion about what to do to avoid holding up his team-mate Mads Ostberg.

“I didn’t know if Mads was three minutes or four minutes behind me. Was I going to stop and wait for a minute, just in case he came?

"I pulled over, changed the tyre and hadn’t gone 500 metres up the road, when I got the message to pull over for Mads.

"Once I got going again, I had a load of understeer and thought: 'F**k! We’ve a front puncture as well!' And that was it.”

WRC - Spain: Kubica reaches the end of the stage with an apparent misfire, and with a time 1.9s slower than Latvala, he slips behind the Finn into seventh overall.

WRC - Spain: Sordo has made it to the end of SS5, matching his team-mate Neuville's time exactly, but that's not going to do much to help the home hero catch the drivers ahead in the standings.

WRC - Spain: Tyre news for this afternoon: Ogier, Latvala and Ostberg take one spare while the other manufacturer drivers take two. All crews running the hard compound - largely because it's indecently hot for late October.

WRC - Spain: SS6 is about to start, but of the works runners we're still waiting for the Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Haydon Paddon as well as Robert Kubica's Ford to finish the previous stage.

Here's the provisional order for SS5 so far:

1) Ogier 4m23.0s
2) Mikkelsen +0.6s
3) Ostberg +0.7s
4) Latvala +1.3s
5) Neuville +1.5s
6) Hirvonen +2.3s

WRC - Spain: Ostberg gets his afternoon off to an auspicious start, beating Hirvonen by 1.6s to go third quickest so far and consolidate the final podium place.

Meanwhile, it appears Evans is off the road and trying to get back on.