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Corsica WRC: Sebastien Ogier wins from Thierry Neuville

Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier won the Tour of Corsica, taking another step towards his fourth World Rally Championship title in the process

The Frenchman's hard work was done on the first day of the event, as extending his lead over Citroen's Kris Meeke to 15 seconds he looked in control.

On the second stage of Friday afternoon Meeke suffered a puncture and fell out of contention giving Ogier a half a minute lead, which he built on.

A repeat mistake led to Meeke hitting a tree and retiring early on the second day. He did return to win the powerstage on Sunday.

Thierry Neuville took up second from Meeke on Friday, but the Hyundai man had to face an intense attack from Ogier's team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen.

The Norwegian got within 5.4s at the end of Saturday's morning loop, but rapid times in the afternoon meant Neuville entered the final day with a gap of 21.5s.

Despite consolidating his cushion over Mikkelsen, the Belgian could only erode Ogier's lead slightly.

Jari-Matti Latvala took fourth after struggling with set-up and brakes all weekend, despite winning the event last year. The Finn held off another impressive performance from Citroen's Craig Breen.

The Irishman proved rapid in his first event on asphalt in the Citroen DS 3 WRC. Catching a rain shower on Saturday afternoon ended any hopes of catching Latvala but it was another assured performance from the Waterford man in fifth.

Neuville's Hyundai team-mates followed; Hayden Paddon's asphalt struggles continued while a puncture on Friday curtailed Dani Sordo's charge.

Rounding out the top 10 were a trio of M-Sport Fiestas, works drivers Eric Camilli and Mads Ostberg heading DMACK's Ott Tanak.

Camilli was tasked with bringing the car home and showed good pace on his first visit to the island in a WRC car. Ostberg continued to struggle in the Fiesta; a new driving style on asphalt didn't yield the improvement expected of the Norwegian.

Tanak struggled, overheating the DMACK tyres through Friday and Saturday. However, as rain hit mid-way through Saturday, the cooler temperatures brought an improvement in stage times.

Elfyn Evans proved to be the class of the WRC2 field, seeing off only a modest charge from Skoda's Jan Kopecky as the Welshman proved dominant on the event he finished second overall on last year.

He beat the Czech by 33.3s and only finished 11th, just over half a minute down on Tanak's WRC-spec Fiesta.

LEADING FINISHERS AFTER SS10:

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LEADING POWERSTAGE TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Kris Meeke, P.Nagle Abu Dhabi Total WRT Citroen 6m09.0s
2 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Volkswagen Motorsport II Volkswagen 0.5s
3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 1.6s
4 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen 1.7s
5 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 4.2s

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Sebastien Ogier 195
2 Andreas Mikkelsen 127
3 Thierry Neuville 112
4 Hayden Paddon 102
5 Jari-Matti Latvala 101
6 Dani Sordo 92
7 Mads Ostberg 80
8 Kris Meeke 54
9 Ott Tanak 53
10 Craig Breen 35
11 Eric Camilli 28
12 Henning Solberg 14
13 Esapekka Lappi 12
14 Stephane Lefebvre 10
15 Martin Prokop 10
16 Teemu Suninen 9
17 Marcos Ligato 6
18 Elfyn Evans 6
19 Pontus Tidemand 6
20 Lorenzo Bertelli 4
21 Jan Kopecky 4
22 Kevin Abbring 4
23 Armin Kremer 2
24 Nicolas Fuchs 2
25 Valeriy Gorban 1
26 Karl Kruuda 1

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