WRC Rally Australia: Sebastien Ogier on brink of win and 2015 title
Sebastien Ogier increased his Rally Australia lead on Sunday morning and is poised to clinch his third World Rally Championship title, with Volkswagen team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala now into second
Ogier is just two Sunday afternoon stages away from retaining the championship, with Latvala needing to outscore his team-mate by 10 points to keep the fight alive until Corsica.
The Frenchman doesn't need to win to clinch the title but he wasn't resting on his laurels, as he set the pace on all three of the morning stages.
His blistering pace helped him extend his lead over Latvala to 7.3 seconds going into the afternoon.
Latvala may be struggling to keep up with Ogier but he was able to demote Kris Meeke to third on the opening Bucca Long stage.
He was 9.4s faster than Citroen driver Meeke through the 13.6-mile stage, which gave him a lead of 7.1s.
Meeke tried his best to stay with the pace of the VWs but was struggling and ending the morning 19.6s off leader Ogier, and 12.3s behind Latvala.
The Citroen driver is now locked in an intense battle for the final podium spot with Andreas Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen was faster than Meeke on every stage of the morning loop, where VW completed a top three sweep each time.
The Norwegian is just 4.2s behind Meeke going into the final two stages of the rally.
Hayden Paddon and Ott Tanak both maintained their respective gaps in fifth and sixth, with Paddon doing his utmost throughout the morning to edge closer to Meeke and Mikkelsen, who is 18.4s ahead.
Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo appear to have settled for seventh and eighth positions in the other two Hyundais.
M-Sport's Elfyn Evans had a clean run through the morning stages to stay ninth.
WRC2 leader Nasser Al-Attiyah once again completed the top 10 but Yurii Protasov remains hot on his heels in 11th.
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