Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

WRC Australia: Sebastien Ogier leads from Kris Meeke

Sebastien Ogier topped all three Friday morning stages on Rally Australia as he inched out a lead over Citroen duo Kris Meeke and Mikko Hirvonen

Meeke continued to impress in the event set to decide his World Rally Championship future and was runaway points leader Ogier's closest rival for most of the loop.

Hirvonen raised his game through the morning as well, and was only half a second down on Ogier's flying Volkswagen on the 24-kilometre Newry stage.

With Meeke having a scare with a big rock on the same stage, Hirvonen closed to within 0.2 seconds of his temporary team-mate, while Ogier is nine seconds clear of the Citroens up front.

M-Sport Ford's lead driver Thierry Neuville admitted to feeling "lost" on his Rally Australia debut.

He still holds fourth at present, 25.6s off the lead but ahead of team-mate Mads Ostberg.

Jari-Matti Latvala's rally is so far proving as tough as he predicted.

A spin on the Tuckers Nob stage that opened the morning means the VW driver is back in eighth behind team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen and M-Sport's Evgeny Novikov.

Leading positions after SS5:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car      Time/Gap
 1.  Sebastien Ogier     VW            29m50.9s
 2.  Kris Meeke          Citroen          +8.8s
 3.  Mikko Hirvonen      Citroen          +9.0s
 4.  Thierry Neuville    M-Sport Ford    +25.6s
 5.  Mads Ostberg        M-Sport Ford    +27.7s
 6.  Andreas Mikkelsen   VW              +37.0s
 7.  Evgeny Novikov      M-Sport Ford    +40.0s
 8.  Jari-Matti Latvala  VW              +44.9s
 9.  Yazeed Al-Rajhi     Yazeed Ford   +2m14.4s*
10.  Nathan Quinn        Italia Mini   +2m15.7s

* WRC 2

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Rally Australia: Latvala fears for chances after poor qualifying
Next article WRC Australia: Sebastien Ogier extends lead over Citroens

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe