Sebastien Ogier hangs on to Rally of France lead as Dani Sordo closes in

Although Citroen driver Ogier managed to pull out a 9.5-second advantage over the chasing Mini yesterday afternoon, Sordo was quicker on today's opener Graviere de Bischwiller, fastest of all on Vignoble de Cleebourg, then equalled Ogier on the Haguenau street stage.

The gap between them now stands at 4.5s with three stages to go.

"That's not bad, but we need to be faster if we want to win," said Sordo. "I'm pushing hard, I just have to keep up the pressure."

Ogier said he was relishing the fight and expected it to go down to the wire.

"I think it will be close because Dani is pushing hard," he said. "He had a good drive this morning. It's good fun."

Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) remain third and fourth, with Ford yet to apply the team orders that will elevate title contender Mikko Hirvonen up a place from his current fifth.

Armindo Araujo crashed his Motorsport Italia Mini out of seventh on the first stage of the morning, where Dennis Kuipers (FERM Ford) cemented his potential career-best sixth by setting a surprise second-fastest time.

Also flying is Ken Block - two top-six stage times have brought the Monster Ford up to ninth.

Leading positions after SS20:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car           Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier     Citroen          2h54m30.9s
 2.  Dani Sordo          Mini                 + 4.9s
 3.  Petter Solberg      Solberg Citroen   + 1m15.1s
 4.  Jari-Matti Latvala  Ford              + 1m32.9s
 5.  Mikko Hirvonen      Ford              + 3m15.0s
 6.  Dennis Kuipers      FERM Ford         + 6m15.4s
 7.  Henning Solberg     Stobart Ford      + 6m47.0s
 8.  Mads Ostberg        Stobart Ford      + 7m23.4s
 9.  Ken Block           Monster Ford      + 8m03.6s
10.  Pierre Campana      France Mini       + 8m10.8s