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By: Matt Beer

Summary

Status: Stopped
How was that? Perhaps not the Ogier-Meeke battle we might have expected or hoped for before the weekend, but Tanak certainly stepped up to the mark to keep things interesting at the front.

That's where we're going to end our live coverage for the weekend. Thank you for joining us for Wales Rally GB, the Malaysian GP and Formula V8 3.5 updates this weekend - we hope you've enjoyed the coverage.

Don't go too far, though, as there's more live coverage to come. Autosport will have all the updates from the Mexican Grand Prix from 7:00pm UK time this evening, including expert insight from the trackside team.
 
Orudhzev appears set for victory, as Deletraz has slipped to over two seconds back in second entering the last lap.
Away from the WRC leaders, it's worth noting that without a 10-second penalty for leaving service late, Ostberg would have tied Latvala for seventh overall.
An important point, there. Evans' WRC2 season is done, but Lappi's win means there's 15 points between the two in the class standings.

That means he needs Lappi, who will contest the final round of the season in Australia, to finish fourth in order to claim the crown.
 
Here for one final time this weekend are some stage times and standings for you:

SS22 Brenig leading times:
1 Tanak 5m19s
2 Mikkelsen +1.4s
3 Neuville +4.5s
4 Latvala +4.8s
5 Ogier +6.2s
6 Tidemand +6.8s

Final classification:
1 Ogier 3h14m30.2s
2 Tanak +10.2s
3 Neuville +1m35.4s
4 Paddon +1m54.9s
5 Meeke +2m35.2s
6 Sordo +4m02.6s
7 Latvala +4m28.3s
8 Ostberg +4m38.3s
9 Lefebvre +7m12.2s
10 Camilli +8m19.3s
The lead pair of Orudzhev and Deletraz are demonstrating markedly superior pace over the rest of the field, circulating 0.9s faster than the opposition.
GP3 race winner Aitken has dropped back from Vaxiviere, and his fourth place is under threat from a feisty Beitske Visser.

A little over a second separates leader Orudzzhev from his pursuer Deletraz. Championship leader Tom Dillmann has worked his way up to eighth from this 13th place starting position.
Cracking time from Tidemand on the powerstage - he's sixth-fastest of everyone, 6.8s slower than Tanak.

It's not enough, though, as Lappi seals WRC2 honours on the event by 29.1s.
 
 
And manufacturer-wise, here's the current standings - with Volkswagen champions, pending official confirmation:

1 Volkswagen Motorsport 355
2 Hyundai Motorsport 285
3 M-Sport World Rally Team 154
Rene Binder pits from the lead to receive service from his Charouz-run Lotus crew. The pit stop sequence has thus concluded.

There a couple of battles developing at the front of the field; Deletraz is 1.8s behind race leader Orudzhev, but taking a tenth or two a lap out of the Arden driver.

Third-placed Vaxiviere is also coming under increasing pressure from category debutant Jack Aitken, as a quarter of an hour of action remains.
Unofficial drivers' championship:

1 Ogier 247pts
2 Neuville 143
3 Mikkelsen 129
4 Paddon 126
5 Sordo 119
6 Latvala 110
7 Ostberg 94
8 Tanak 82
9 Meeke 64
10 Breen 36
"Cheers!" mouths Ogier into the camera as the three podium crews pose.
 
M-Sport is quite right - that was a great effort from Tanak to win all of Sunday's stages. There were a couple of incidents he might look back on - perhaps that puncture on Friday evening - but he's driven a terrific event.
 
"This weekend, the main target was to be manufacturer champion," says Ogier. "I would not be world champion without them - it's just great to do it with a victory again. I allowed a little bit on the last three stages of the rally but ti was not easy. Ott was very fast, and consistent, we had to be perfect to stay in front."
Ogier safely negotiates the stage to win Wales Rally GB!

He doesn't trouble Tanak's time - he's fifth on the stage - but still has enough in hand to win by 10.2s overall.

As he jumps aloft his car with Julien Ingrassia, it's a good time to point out this is his first gravel win of the season. It also confirms Volkswagen as manufacturer champions for 2016.
Deletraz finally pits from the lead for fresh rears on lap 10. The Fortec racer rejoins two seconds behind Egor Orudzhev.

Only Lotus driver Rene Binder, who started on the back row after a qualifying crash, has yet to stop.
Just Ogier to come. Despite that great time from Tanak, it should still be a comfortable enough run to the finish for Ogier to claim a fourth-straight Wales Rally GB win.
There has been an outbreak of pit activity on lap seven. Egor Orudzhev, Vaxiviere and Jack Aitken were among those to pit.

Deletraz now leads by 14.5 seconds from Vitor Baptista. Only three drivers have yet to stop.
"Just for now, Seb's still coming," says Tanak when told he's fastest. "I just want to say thanks to the team and the DMACK guys. They've worked really hard. Our road position was not maybe great, but we really benefited because of the tyre."
Here's Tanak through the finish, having bashed a couple of hay bales out of the way, and he goes fastest of all by 1.4s. His time is 5m19s.
Tanak is 0.6s up at the split with just a flying run to the end of the stage left.
Tanak will be next through, and while victory looks beyond him he should still secure a fine second place.
"It was a nice weekend," says Neuville. "The team has done good job with the car; it wasn't enough to fight for the win, but I'm happy with how the weekend has gone. A very good friend of mine died last week - this podium is for him."
Louis Deletraz is applying pressure to leader Orudzhev. The gap between the two was just half a second on lap four.

The race has lost Aurelien Panis who has parked his Arden car opposite the pits. Panis had been circulating behind Pietro Fittipaldi in seventh.

Fittipaldi has become the first driver to make his mandatory tyre change.
Here's Neuville across the finish, 3.1s down on Mikkelsen and second on the powerstage so far.
Neuville and Tanak too have now started the stage.
Paddon completes the stage and is fourth-fastest so far. He's 6.8s off the pace.

"When you want to come here and get a podium you can even be happy when you just miss out," he says.

That's because team-mate Neuville should come through ahead of Paddon, having started the stage with 12.3s in hand in their battle for third.
Three-time 2016 race winner Roy Nissany had problems getting away from the grid and is running a distant last.
The top six order on lap one: 1 Orudhzev; 2 Deletraz; 3 Vaxiviere; 4 Aitken; 5 Visser; 6 Fittipaldi.
"It's great to drive in front of your home fans, but this year impossible for me to do anything when it's like this," says Meeke.

We won't see the Northern Irishman now until the Monte Carlo Rally at the start of next season.
Egor Orudzhev completes the first lap in the lead after a flying start from fifth on the grid.
Meeke will be the next man through, and completes the stage now 5.5s slower than Mikkelsen. The Norwegian's time looks more and more impressive.
At the finish, he's slowest of all - 9.6s off Mikkelsen's time.

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