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WRC Australia: Sebastien Ogier edging closer to title after win sweep

Sebastien Ogier continued to storm away from the field at the end of day two of Rally Australia

As the World Rally Championship leader reeled off another clean sweep of stage wins to edge himself closer to clinching the title, the big news of Saturday afternoon was Kris Meeke's exit.

On his debut for Citroen's full works team in place of Dani Sordo, the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion had been holding fourth place between Thierry Neuville and Jari-Matti Latvala.

But that impressive run came to an end on the second run of the long Nambucca stage, where Meeke rolled into retirement, to Citroen's frustration.

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The possibility of Meeke catching Neuville or being caught by Latvala was the main interest of the front group, with Ogier, Mikko Hirvonen, Neuville and Latvala now spread out in the top three positions.

Just 2.5 seconds splits Norwegian pair Andreas Mikkelsen and Mads Ostberg in fifth and sixth, though, after an excursion on the Valla stage cost Ostberg ground.

Neuville and Ostberg's M-Sport Ford team-mate Evgeny Novikov was already falling away from this group even before a puncture that cost him several minutes.

Leading positions after SS16:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car         Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW             2h14m53.9s
 2.  Mikko Hirvonen      Citroen            +45.9s
 3.  Thierry Neuville    M-Sport Ford     +1m11.4s
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW               +1m47.6s
 5.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW               +2m10.8s
 6.  Mads Ostberg        M-Sport Ford     +2m13.3s
 7.  Evgeny Novikov      M-Sport Ford     +6m36.6s
 8.  Nathan Quinn        Italia Mini      +9m10.8s
 9.  Khalid Al Qassimi   Citroen         +10m23.0s
10.  Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari Qatar Ford      +12m00.1s*

* WRC 2

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